


Amour Fou

by twoheartedalien



Series: WidowTracer Series [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Post-Recall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-20 18:59:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11927202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoheartedalien/pseuds/twoheartedalien
Summary: This story takes place approximately three years after the events L'appel du Vide. Amélie Lacroix has become the assassin known as Widowmaker and now that Lena "Tracer" Oxton knows this, she won't give up until she rescues her love. Or she dies. Whatever happens first.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This continuation takes place after the events of the recall and the Mondatta assassination. It's not particularly canon compliant.

In the almost three years since Lena had found out the identity of Widowmaker, nothing had been able to dissuade her from her search for Amélie. Now that Lena knew that Amélie was alive, out there somewhere and knew that Talon had her, she at least knew where to look and gave her the chance to talk to the sniper. Angela had protested her obsession vehemently throughout, even more so when Lena would return to base from missions injured at the hands of Widowmaker. Most of the time her injuries were minor and she would be back to missions within the week. Once it had been a broken hand, another time it was multiple fractured ribs and another it was a shattered eye socket.

No one seemed to understand how Lena could insist that these injuries served a purpose or how it could bring her a step closer to rescuing Amélie from Talon. Each time Widowmaker managed to injure her in some way, it had been provoked by some kind of emotion Lena brought forth. Lena had been experimenting with ways to drag out emotion from the usually calm and collected assassin.

When Widowmaker had broken her hand, Lena had asked her questions about what she remembered about Gérard. She had decided it would be easier to start there; they had been married for more than twice as long as Lena had even known Amélie. Widowmaker’s eyes had shifted, flashing with anger before disabling Lena by breaking her hand. When Widowmaker had fractured her ribs, Lena had spoken about some of the secret dates they had gone on during their affair. Her face softened almost imperceptibly, a brief hint of Amélie behind those golden eyes, before her mouth contorted into a snarl as she broke Lena’s ribs with a swift kick of a metal booted foot. When Widowmaker shattered her eye socket, Lena had ditched the idea of making comments on the more romantic side of her relationships, instead going for making lewd comments and suggestions. She would be lying if she said there wasn't any kind of thrill of flirting with a deadly assassin. This had earned her the most considerable reaction yet, Widowmaker’s lips turning up into a smirk as she had backed Lena into a wall. She ran a gloved hand through Lena’s hair before ghosting her lips over the skin in front of her ear; it had lulled Lena into a false sense of security before Widowmaker brought down the end of her rifle on her eye.  

As time went on, their encounters became more frequent and Lena’s prodding had garnered bigger and more varied reactions from Widowmaker. There hadn’t seemed to be much of a recognisable pattern between what Lena would say to Widowmaker and what kind of reaction she would get for it. It also seemed as if there wasn’t one consistent personality behind Widowmaker. Sometimes the person she engaged with was emotionless and blank, other times she would act with pure cruelty as if she found pleasure in what she was doing and others she seemed regretful and sad. Any time that Widowmaker gave her more of a reaction than a neutral look; Lena had counted it a victory much to Angela’s dismay.

Lena had almost lost her motivation after Widowmaker assassinated Mondatta after she had just laughed in her face. Angela had encouraged her to give up on her obsession, that Widowmaker couldn’t be rescued as she constantly insisted. ‘What happened to that nice girl you were seeing, Emily?’ was something she heard a few times before Angela understood that it was fruitless effort. Of course what had happened was that she had found out Amélie was alive even if she was Widowmaker now and she couldn’t bring herself to continue seeing someone else when she knew that. Lena couldn’t live with the guilt of dating some nice, sweet girl while still being in love with Amélie, no matter what she had become and she couldn't live with the guilt of moving on while Amélie could be rescued. She had almost given into Angela’s encouragement until she had encountered Widowmaker again in the field three weeks later when the sniper had the perfect chance to take her out for good. Her chronal accelerator had malfunctioned after she had been injured, no blinks or recalls even though it still managed to keep her in time, Widowmaker had her chance to kill her. Lena had even closed her eyes and waited for Widowmaker to take the killing shot but it never came. When she opened her eyes again, the sniper had disappeared and left Lena standing by herself on the rooftop.

                                                                                                       _X_

Tracer stood on the edge of the rooftop, her arms crossed over her chest as her eyes scanned the skies. As soon as Morrison had given the mission briefing, she had a feeling that she would find Widowmaker here. There were plenty of tall, sniper friendly buildings around and Talon always took the chance to deploy their most effective agent. She just needed the sniper to reveal her location one way or another. Most of her fellow Overwatch agents had stopped protesting her taking every opportunity to challenge and encounter Widowmaker in the field. Except for Mercy. Mercy would try to mother her until her dying breath. 

A warning shot, a crack of thunder, brought Tracer out of her thoughts and her face split into a grin. _There she is._ Tracer quickly blinked herself across several buildings, wanting to find Widowmaker and accept her invite to play. She found herself skidding across the tile with the momentum of her blink, the blue-skinned assassin quickly coming into vision. Widowmaker looked as she always did, not a hair out of place amidst a war-zone with a cool, neutral expression on her face. _What version of this woman am I in for today?_

There were a few moments of eye contact between the two of them, a comfortable silence, before Widowmaker’s recon visor closed over her eyes and she began taking shots at the Overwatch agent. Tracer flicked her pulse pistols out of their vambraces before blinking behind cover, listening to the clinking of bullets hitting the metal of the air vent. She took a few deep breaths to clear her mind before blinking back out of cover and flanking Widowmaker’s left side, remembering that Amélie had been right handed and taking advantage of the slower reaction time. Tracer never truly aimed to hurt Widowmaker, though she had done it many times on accident; she did her best to just keep the sniper distracted while the other Overwatch agents carried out their mission.  

Tracer fired several clips near Widowmaker’s feet, causing her to retreat with the use of her grapple hook while returning fire as Tracer chased after her. Widowmaker released her grapple as she landed behind cover, propping her rifle on the ledge as she continued to fire at Tracer. She blinked back and forth as she dodged the oncoming fire. She holstered her pulse pistols again as she came around the side of Widowmaker’s cover, body tackling the sniper and knocking her rifle several metres away in the impact.

Widowmaker popped open her recon visor once they had finished tumbling, narrowing her golden eyes at Tracer before the corners of her mouth turned up in a smirk. Tracer did her best to hold Widowmaker to the tile of the roof by her wrists but she knew, realistically, that Amélie had always been bigger and stronger than herself and the difference between them would be even more pronounced after _whatever_ they had done to her. Widowmaker seemed to let her have the upper hand for a few moments with a wicked smirk on her face before quickly turning the tides though that didn’t scare Tracer, if the sniper had really wanted to kill her she had had ample opportunity to do so on previous missions.

“If you wanted to be on top, luv, you should have just said so.” Tracer returned the smirk that Widowmaker had been giving her, “From memory, you were always into that.” Widowmaker let out a dark chuckle at that, causing Tracer to swallow hard. _Better than having my face punched in, I guess._

“Yes, you always were a... weak, whimpering bottom, Lena.” The assassin purred. Tracer’s eyes widened, going slightly slack jawed in surprise. Widowmaker had never referred to her by her actual name or even indicated that she knew it. She had only called her by her call sign once. While Tracer was distracted by her surprise, a gloved hand gripped around her throat and cut off her air, leaving her gasping and her legs flailing as she tried to buck the sniper off her with her hips. She clawed at the tattooed arm, trying to pry Widowmaker’s fingers away from her throat. Her vision began to blur at the edges, her ears beginning to ring as blood and oxygen was being cut off.

Widowmaker only released her grip when some Talon agent appeared on the roof causing the sniper to roll away from Tracer, leaving the Overwatch agent to gasp desperately for air. Tracer rolled over onto her front, propping herself up on her hands and knees, ears ringing and unaware of the Talon agent heading her way.

“Chérie, get out of the way!” Widowmaker hissed in a low voice, trying to prevent herself from being noticed. Tracer looked towards Widowmaker when she heard that pet name, its use not helping her dazed state. She barely registered the sound of gunfire before tank next to her exploded.


	2. Chapter 2

Lena woke up to searing pain in her hands and upper forearms. She let out a groan as she opened her eyes and attempted to sit herself up in bed, crying out in pain after trying to use her hands out of habit to help sit up. Both of her hands were wrapped in bandages up to her mid forearm. She could feel the bruising around her neck as she swallowed, her mouth dry from being unconscious for god knows how long. Her whole body gave out a low, dull ache. Lena squinted at her surroundings, last thing she had remembered was being on a mission and fighting with Widowmaker, now it looked like she was back at Watchpoint Gibraltar in the med bay.

“Angie?” She called out; history would suggest that the good doctor would be hanging around the med bay until she woke up.  Lena could hear the clicking of heels before Angela appeared in the doorway, clipboard in hand.

“Oh good, you’re awake now.” Angela smiled at her before pulling up a seat next to the bed Lena was in. “How do you feel?” Lena raised a brow at her before raising her hands slowly as her answer. Angela simply clicked her pen and stared at her until she gave a proper answer.

“It hurts.” Angela rolled her eyes at that answer so Lena cut her off before she could say anything, “Don’t remember what happened, luv, care to fill me in?” The doctor quickly scribbled something down on the paper attached to her clipboard before clearing her throat.

                                                                                                          X

Widowmaker watched as the Talon agent emptied the clip in his gun blindly at Tracer, missing the Overwatch agent completely and hitting the propane tank to her side. _Idiot._ She had called out to her in a warning but Tracer only had time to raise her hands in front of herself before it exploded and sending her flying backwards, hitting her head on the tile. The Talon agent crossed the roof in order to confirm the kill and Widowmaker aimed her rifle, killing him with one quick shot between the eyes.

Widowmaker found herself crouched beside Tracer, pressing her fingers to her neck to check that she definitely was still alive. The idiot had interrupted her struggle with Tracer and nearly killed them both in the process.  They were both lucky that she was far more observant than Tracer. She began assessing Tracer’s injuries, attempting to push aside the part of her mind urging her to kill the Overwatch agent. No one was as entertaining as Tracer. Other Overwatch agents could hold their own against Widowmaker but they weren’t as...  _interesting._ Tracer elevated her heartrate in a way that others simply couldn’t. It made her feel… warm. She needed to resist her conditioning to keep her source of entertainment alive. Her arms were severely burned from finger tips to mid forearm, the RAF jacket that she always wore on missions completely burned away up until her upper arms, well above her elbows. Bruising had begun to show on her neck from where Widowmaker had strangled her earlier. There seemed to be a few superficial cuts on her body from the scraps of metal sent out by the tank as it exploded. Possible concussion from the impact.

The sniper tapped her finger alongside the outside of Widow’s Kiss as she weighed her options. Leaving Tracer on the rooftop alone could get her killed or leave her unable to return to missions which would certainly _not_ benefit her. She would not take Tracer to a civilian hospital due to the PETRAS act and her chronal accelerator; they most likely would not know how to take proper care of her and would kill her source of entertainment. Widowmaker also could not take her to a Talon medic as they would kill her and while having her punished and reconditioned, something some deep part of her was screaming for right now. It only left one option.

She holstered Widow’s Kiss over her shoulder before picking up Tracer’s unconscious body, gently placing the Overwatch agent in a fireman’s carry. She didn’t really understand why but she found herself trying to prevent Tracer’s hands being injured further. Widowmaker stood up and walked to the edge of the rooftop, examining the battle below. Once she had located who she was looking for, she released her grapple hook and slowly descended the side of the building, finding herself on the ground. The Overwatch agent Widowmaker knew as Dr Angela “Mercy” Ziegler was tending to an unconscious civilian a few hundred metres back from the fray.

“Ziegler.” Widowmaker announced her presence from where she stood behind the doctor. Mercy looked up from the patient in front of her before turning to see Widowmaker standing behind her, an unconscious Tracer hanging over her shoulder.

“What have you done to her?” Mercy snarled at her, her hand searching for her pistol before she heard Widowmaker give a low chuckle.

“Do you think that I would hurt her and then bring her here to gloat? I thought you were supposed to be smart, _docteur_.” Widowmaker closed the distance between them before gently placing Tracer on the ground in front of Mercy, cradling her head as she did so. She took Widow’s Kiss from where it was holstered on her shoulder, aiming it at Mercy while in the assault rifle mode. “A propane tank exploded, I did not do this. You will fix her.” She continued, looking between Mercy and Widow’s Kiss to emphasise the threat she was making.

“I would help her whether or not you threatened me.” Mercy snapped, not as affected by the threat as Widowmaker had expected. She began carefully trying to peel away the remains of Tracer’s leather RAF jacket. Widowmaker watched quietly for a few moments before firing her grapple hook and disappearing, leaving Tracer to Mercy's care.

                                                                                                         X

“You mean… she rescued me? Brought me to safety?” Lena asked incredulously. Angela nodded reluctantly; she knew exactly what Lena would think of what Widowmaker had done, that Lena would view this as progress in rescuing Widowmaker and help her escape her conditioning.

“I don’t think we should believe what she said about not being the one to injure you. How much do you actually remember of what happened?”

“I remember chasing her between rooftops… I remember tackling her and us saying a few things back and forth… then she was on top of me and strangled me. She let go and I remember her warning me to watch out. She even used my real name which she’s never done before. Then after that I remember nothing.”

“I see. So the bruises around your neck, they were something she did?” Lena nodded, “But she didn’t cause the tank to explode?” The brunette shrugged slightly, trying to keep herself from being too eager or defensive of Widowmaker.

“Don’t think so. Don’t know why she would warn me before trying to kill me like that. It’s not something she’s ever done before.”

“I don’t want you getting your hopes up, Lena. It’s not something we can be sure of.” Angela’s face twisted with concern, her mind obviously jumping several steps ahead and considering all the potential awful outcomes of Lena continuing to chase after the sniper.

“Luv, we both know it’s far too late for that. Now, dropping that, why don’t you tell me what injuries I’ve got?”

“Mild concussion which I assume was from hitting your head after the explosion, minor burns, cuts and bruises also from the explosion. Bruising around the neck from being strangled but none of those things are permanent and should improve within a week or two depending on well you keep to bed rest. Your hands, however…” Angela trailed off in a way that made Lena nervous, “Your hands, both left and right, have sustained permanent damage and scarring. It won’t prevent you from entering the field and combat but you’ll most likely lose some sensation and you’ll have some severe permanent scars. We’ll need to do a few skin grafts in order to get some improvement. I’m sorry, Lena, there’s only so much my technology can do.” Lena nodded and chewed on the inside of her cheek.

“That’s alright luv, you did your best. At least it’s not going to stop me from doing anything. Assume my jacket’s ruined, right?” Angela gave her a short nod and Lena did her best to conceal her disappoint; it had been her favourite after all. “Could you get the entire team in the med bay for me to talk to them? Or at least most of them?” Lena raised her bandaged hands at the doctor, “Would do it myself but I can’t go anywhere.”

                                                                                                    X

It didn’t take too long for Angela to gather everyone as she’d asked. A fair few of the other members of Overwatch were away on missions so it ended up just being Winston, Morrison, Hana and Angela standing around her bed in the med bay. When she had finished talking about what had happened, they looked between each other and collectively hesitated to say anything.

“You all think I’m crazy and obsessed?”

“Well… Lena. You’ve been pursuing Widowmaker and trying to save her for three years now, unsuccesfully.”

“What’s your point?” Lena furrowed her brow in confusion.

“I think most of us here are worried that your obsession is going to get you killed.” He gestured to her hands, obviously implying Widowmaker had been the one to deal out all these injuries.

“But she didn’t do this to me.” Morrison let out a low, frustrated grumble at her answer. She was impressed that he was managing to keep his opinions to himself; most likely Angela had asked him to keep himself from saying anything someone might regret.

“This one's a broken record.” Commander Morrison grumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.

“We don’t know that for sure, you hit your head.” Lena felt anger bubbling inside her at the comments made by Winston and the telling silence coming from the rest of the group. She took in a deep breath. _One. Two. Three._ Another deep breath. She forced her best ‘Tracer’ smile.

“That’s fine guys. Don’t worry about it. I understand.” Morrison took that as his excuse to leave the room first, closely followed by Angela a few moments later. Both Winston and Hana hesitated to leave, not so hard set on refusing to believe what Lena was saying than them. Or at least that’s what she hoped.

“I believe you, Lena. I just don’t think we should save Widowmaker. Sorry.” Hana gave her a sympathetic look and a shrug before leaving herself.

“I’m worried about you. You’re going to get yourself killed at this rate. You’re getting injured at the hands of Wido-”

“Please leave, Winston.” She cut him off while averting eye contact, dropping her regular fake smile. Winston hesitated to leave again before eventually giving into her request.

                                                                                                 X

Lena had found herself falling asleep relatively quickly that night with all the pain killers that Angela had been giving her. She considered herself lucky that at least the pain relief these days were good, even if Angela couldn’t completely fix her hands. She was woken up in the middle of the night by someone brushing some of her hair out of her eyes, a cold finger running along her cheek. After blinking a few times she was met with the image of Widowmaker standing at her bedside, terrified at accidentally having woken Lena up.

Widowmaker wasn’t wearing any of her normal tactical gear, instead donning regular street clothes which were _so… Amélie_. Some pair of designer jeans, a blouse and a pea coat, all incredibly expensive from what Lena could tell. She even had her hair down. The only difference between Amélie and Widowmaker here was her blue skin and those golden eyes.

“W-Widowmaker?” Lena murmured, eyes scanning over Widowmaker’s body as she tried to determine whether she was dreaming or whether she was still high from all the morphine.

“I did not mean to wake you. I simply wished to check you were okay.” Something inside Lena warmed at the idea of Widowmaker coming to check on her. She took a moment to consider her response, not wanting to scare the assassin off by saying anything wrong.

“I’m alright, luv. Well… I will be at least. Thank you.” She gave Widowmaker a small but warm smile. Widowmaker tilted her head to the side slightly, showing her confusion.

“For what?”

“You rescued me, took me to Mercy to get help despite the risks. You saved my life so thank you.” Lena watched as Widowmaker’s face softened slightly.

“You cannot entertain me if you are dead.” The sniper deflected with a sniff, averting her eyes to the monitors by Lena's bed. Lena had never heard Widowmaker speak so much in one go, her accent was still the same even after...  _whatever_ they did but the way she spoke was different. It was slower and more formal, empty of the warm personality that had been Amélie.

“How did you get in here?” She did her best to ask without hostility, just curiosity.

“It was not hard. I had your AI system temporarily disabled in this part of the building in order to get in and out without complications.” Lena simply nodded.

“Good to know… I think.” _That hacker Sombra obviously helped her,_ “You remember my real name?” Widowmaker gave a light shrug in response.

“Oui. It is Lena, is it not?” She nodded again. “I do not know why I know it. I also do not know why I am here, really.” Lena found her mouth moving before she could think it through.

“We can help you. Let me help you, please.” Lena found herself expecting some sort of pain to be inflicted on her, any time she had suggested help or called her by Amélie instead of Widowmaker in the past, pain had followed.

“Goodbye, chérie.” Widowmaker reached out, rubbing her thumb over the freckles on Lena’s cheek before pressing a kiss to her forehead. A few moments later, the sniper was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

Angela forced Lena to stay on bed rest for a week after she had been brought back to Watchpoint Gibraltar. Even after she was allowed out of bed, she couldn’t use her hands properly for another few weeks and had been taken off the duty roster indefinitely as she recovered. Lena found herself becoming stir crazy with being inside all the time or at least she was until anonymous gifts began arriving for her at the Watchpoint. They drove her a different kind of crazy.

The first gift was a new leather jacket obviously meant to replace the RAF jacket she had lost in the explosion. It was a darker brown than her original jacket and didn’t have the same patches on the arms but it did still have the wool lining. She searched for the label to try gage the price of it or figure out where it had been bought but it had been cut off. It had arrived in a plain box with no return address. Lena kept the jacket hanging on a hook by her wardrobe for the first few days after she had received it as she tried to figure out where it had come from. She spent her time around the Watchpoint, trying to see if she could tell if it was one of the other agents who had bought it for her, trying to see if anyone acted strangely.  It’s not like she could really do anything else with her time. Eventually she gave in and began wearing it, resigning herself to not being able to figure out who sent it. It really was a nice jacket.

The second gift arrived a few days after Lena had given into wearing the new jacket. It was a pair of new shoes, more specifically it was a pair of black combat boots. Lena’s eyebrows drew together in confusion as she pulled them out of the box. Like the leather jacket, they were exactly her size but she couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to send her shoes until she saw the note at the bottom of the box. ‘While your shoes survived the explosion, they are still hideous, here is a replacement pair.’ It was in cursive, feminine handwriting that felt familiar but Lena couldn’t place it. Also like the jacket, she left the shoes in the box as she considered the note and the gift, wondering where it came from.

Lena tried wearing both the new jacket and the new shoes around base in order to garner a reaction from other agents, to figure out if any of them had sent either gift. The most she had got was Angela complimenting her on her new jacket and Hana ‘thanking god’ for someone finally replacing _those_ shoes. She grumbled to herself on her way back to quarters after Hana spent her time mocking her fashion sense before finding yet another package outside her door.

The third gift made Lena sputter with embarrassment. The first gift seemed be something thoughtful, the second seemed to be more of a practical joke but the third… was a little more sexual in nature. She had opened the box to be met with pink tissue paper before finding a pair of union jack briefs inside. They had sent her underwear, whoever this was. She couldn’t put together what person would send her all three gifts. The leather jacket sounded like something either Winston or Angela would send trying to be nice while knowing how much Lena hates receiving gifts.  The shoes seemed mostly like Hana but she still wasn’t too sure on that, even if the little gremlin got a laugh out of it. The underwear didn’t seem like anyone she knew of though; she hadn’t seen anyone like _that_ since that girl, Emily, almost three years ago. She placed the box at the back of her wardrobe and chose to pretend she hadn’t received it.

Another gift arrived the day immediately after and Lena let out a low, frustrated groan as she opened the box. She just hoped that it wouldn’t be similar to the previous one. Blue tissue paper separated her from the gift this time. It turned out to a pair of replacement leather gloves; she had also lost her previous pair in the explosion just like her jacket. Lena squinted at the gift. The series of gifts made no sense to her. The gloves certainly came in handy when the bandages on her hands finally came off.

The final gift came almost a week later and it made her feel an odd mix of embarrassment and anger. She stormed down to the lunch hall from her quarters, box underneath her arm as she approached the table with Hana, Lúcio, Angela, Fareeha and Aleks all sitting together. She dropped the box on the table in front of them all.

“Whoever’s sending these gifts needs to stop right now.” She pointed an accusatory finger at each individual person and waited for someone to give the game away. Hana simply reached out for the box and opened it before cackling loudly. Lena felt her face flush and her ears burn as everyone around the table tried to get a look at the contents of the box.

“Someone sent you a vibrator? That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.” Lena dove across the table top as she tried desperately to get the box back, immediately regretting her decision to bring it with her as everyone began to laugh once they caught sight of it. Once she had the box back in her hands she closed it and hugged it to her chest to prevent anyone from taking it. “Maybe whoever sent it knows how long it’s been since you got laid.” The group went silent after that, Angela delivering a resounding smack to the back of Hana’s head as everyone knew that Hana had crossed an unspoken line. Lena spun on her heels and began to head back to her quarters but still within ear shot as she heard Angela scold Hana.

“You know about Widowmaker, why would you say that?” Angela hissed in a hushed tone, unaware that Lena could still hear her. Lena hated that many, including Angela, acted as if she were fragile. Very few people said what they actually thought around her. She decided to pretend to hear nothing and that she would act is if none of this affected her.

                                                                                                                         X

Several days later Lena woke up to Athena informing her that Dr Ziegler wanted to see her for a check up on her burns, she waved the AI off to acknowledge she understood before rolling over onto her back. She rubbed at her eyes before sitting herself up on the edge of the bed and checking her phone quickly, a few messages from Hana and Lúcio about having a game night later but nothing important. Lena searched the floor of her quarters for some clothes to wear; her cleanliness certainly _had not_ improved over the years, and pulled on some jeans, a t-shirt and the pair of gloves on her bedside table. Ever since she got the bandages removed from her hands and had received the gloves as a gift, she had begun wearing them religiously to cover up the scarring. The stares she received from other agents and from strangers in public were enough to make her want to hide; people thought they were more discreet than they actually were. She had slowly become grateful for _some_ of the gifts that were sent, even if she vehemently denied the existence of the… _others_.

She found herself in Angela’s office next to the med bay less than ten minutes after Athena had woken her up and took a seat on the patient bed inside used for physicals. Angela finished whatever she was reading and got up from her seat at her desk, crossing the room to where Lena sat with her normal, professional smile. She pulled on a pair of latex gloves.

“Could you remove your gloves for me please?” Lena nodded before pulling them off and putting them to the side. She held them out in front of her, palms facing down, for Angela to see as she’d been asked to do the last couple of check-ups. Thankfully, the burns no longer hurt now that they had completely scarred over with the help of several skin grafts performed by Angela. She had also gotten most of her range of motion back in her fingers but the sensation was dulled but Lena had been warned about that outcome, had been expecting it. Angela took Lena’s hands in hers and examined them closely as she performed a few tests.

“You have no pain?” Angela asked, examining Lena’s face closely as she answered. She knew Lena would lie in order to get back to full duty roster as soon as possible.

“Nope, no pain. Sense of touch is still a bit fucked but…” Lena trailed off and gave a slight shrug. Angela pursed her lips, obviously considering Lena’s answer.

“Alright, you can put your gloves back on if you wish.” Angela stepped away from the patient bed and began writing something down in her notes. Lena tried to straighten her posture in order to try see over the doctor’s shoulder to figure out what she was writing, Angela turned back to face her as if she had a sixth sense for what she was trying to do. “Reluctantly, I’m going to clear you to go back to full duty, no restrictions.” Lena pumped her fist in the air before grabbing her gloves and pulling them back on. She pushed herself off the bed and started heading for the door. “You need to be more careful, Lena. I know you want to think that Amélie is in there still, but Widowmaker may succeed in killing you someday. I think she might be using your relationship with Amélie to hurt you.”

Lena stopped just before the door to the office, looking at the doctor for a few moments. She knew Angela had been hesitant to clear Lena for duty because she thinks her obsession with Widowmaker was dangerous. The agent gave the doctor a curt nod to show her understanding before leaving the office.

Lena quickly made the trip from Angela’s office to Winston’s lab. Now that she was cleared for duty, she wanted to speak to someone about getting herself assigned to a mission at the first opportunity. She had truly been going stir crazy stuck inside her quarters and on base for almost two months since her accident. Lena knocked on the door and waited until Winston gave permission for her to enter. The door slid open and she stepped inside, seeing Winston sitting at his desk and surrounded by his computer monitors.      

“Winston!” She cheered as she dove at Winston and hugged one of his furry arms. “Did Angela tell you? I can join you guys on missions again.” She grinned widely at him as he chuckled slightly.

“Yes, I just received notification from her that you’ve been cleared for full duty. Your hands don’t hurt anymore?” Winston eyed her with concern before looking back to whatever he was working on.

“Nope.” She replied, popping the p. “Can you get me on the first mission available? Especially if it has some nice, tall sniper friendly buildings?” Winston returned his eyes to Lena, his dislike for what she was asking already evident on his face.

“You want your first mission back to be one where we’ll face Widowmaker? After all that she did to you the last time?” He sounded incredulous, like he couldn’t believe that she would want to continue chasing after her even though she had never shown any signs of giving up in the past. It really shouldn’t be all that surprising at this point.

“Yeah, luv. Need to confront her about what she did to me the last time and I can’t do that if I don’t get to run into her on a mission.” Lena was purposefully vague, making it sound more like she wanted to return the favour of what had happened on the last mission as opposed to wanting to ask Widowmaker questions. “Or at least don’t keep me from missions that we think she might be on.” Winston let out a sigh and Lena knew she had won him over, he had always had trouble telling her no.

“Alright. I will let you know if a mission like that comes up and I will try to get Morrison to assign you to it.” Lena grinned at him before hugging him tightly again.

“Thank you, luv! You won’t regret it, I promise.” Winston let out a low grunt in response as Lena headed back out of his lab, celebrating her victory.

                                                                                                                      X

It was another four days before Morrison called her to the conference room for a briefing on the next mission. She took a seat next to Hana and waited with her as everyone gathered around the table. Lena watched as Angela, Aleks and Lúcio joined them around the table as Morrison headed the briefing up the front. They were to roll out on the mission that afternoon, something to do with securing a payload of supplies; Lena didn’t really listen all that closely after she heard about the possibility of Widowmaker being involved with this mission.

That afternoon, Tracer found herself standing in the streets of Oasis. She could feel Mercy hovering near to her, watching her closely as they waited for Talon interference with their mission. Tracer was almost disappointed after almost two hours had gone by without a single sign of Widowmaker being involved with this mission. Normally by now she would have taken a shot at one of the other agents or fired an inviting shot at her personally telling Tracer her location.

It wasn’t until the Overwatch agents had engaged regular Talon soldiers on the ground that a crack of thunder announced Widowmaker’s existence as Zarya took a hit to the shoulder. Mercy’s attention was diverted from keeping her eye on Tracer in order to tend to the Russian’s injury. A grin grew on Tracer’s face as she scanned the surrounding buildings for the source of the shot before she took off in a series of rapid blinks.

“Tracer! Tracer, stop!” Mercy called out from where she knelt, watching as Tracer disappeared from the battle.

Tracer entered the lobby of a hotel and began blinking up the main stair case. If Widowmaker was anything like Amélie, she would be hiding away in the Penthouse suite as she had always done everything with her own expensive taste. She smirked to herself as she found Widowmaker with her rifle propped on the window sill.

“You’re losing your touch, luv.” Tracer said to announce her arrival. Widowmaker peered over her shoulder at Tracer, her face pinched with a look of amusement.

“I see you got my gifts, chérie.” Tracer quickly looked between the sniper and the leather jacket and gloves she was wearing. She let out an undignified squeak as she realised that Widowmaker had not only sent the jacket, gloves and shoes but _also_ the underwear and the purple vibrator. Widowmaker’s lips turned up into a wicked smirk as she pulled her rifle away from the window sill and holstered the weapon over her shoulder.

“Y-You sent these?” She stammered out, her face warming under the sniper’s attentions. Widowmaker slowly strolled towards her, swinging her hips in a way that made Tracer direct her eyes to the ceiling.

“Oui.” Tracer’s back hit the wall as Widowmaker’s slender blue finger dragged down the collar of the leather jacket. She swallowed hard as her mouth dried out, trying to find the words to speak.

“W-Why?”

“You were out of commission for two months; I needed to keep myself entertained somehow.” The assassin purred, her lukewarm breath hitting the skin of Tracer’s neck. “I see you seem to appreciate the jacket, the gloves and the shoes. How did you like the… _other_ gifts?” She breathed in sharply at the question.

“U-Um…. I-Uh.” Tracer blubbered, blood flow moving from her brain southward quickly. She shuddered at the possessive chuckle that came from Widowmaker.

“I have been informed that it has been a while.” Tracer inhaled sharply as a finger trailed along the waistband of her leggings. “You always were adorable when you became flustered, chérie.” The assassin’s cool finger tips began to slip into her pants when Lena found her mouth moving before she could think.

“You remember us, luv? Is that what the gifts were about?” Widowmaker’s movements stopped, her whole body freezing.

“Do you _always_ have to ruin everything?” The sniper’s tone had gone from teasing and amused to cold. Tracer felt her left knee be kicked out and twisted from underneath her causing her to cry out in pain. Widowmaker left the Penthouse suite as Tracer cradled her knee to her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and leaving kudos and comments, I really like reading them :D In the near future I'll be working on some Widowmaker/Tracer oneshots based in this series. It would be a mixture of fluff/angst/smut and I'm looking for requests or suggestions, I have my own ideas but I want to know what others want to see. Feel free to leave a comment if you have an idea :D


	4. Chapter 4

“Here we are. _Again_.” Angela stood next to the patient bed in her office, hand on her hip and issuing Lena an unimpressed look. Lena gave her a nervous chuckle. “I clear you for duty and the first thing you do is get yourself injured again at the hands of Widowmaker.”

“To be fair…” Lena started as Angela’s eyes narrowed at her in warning; she cleared her throat before continuing, “To be fair it’s only a strain. I’ll be back in fighting shape within a few days.” She gave the doctor her best, reassuring ‘Tracer’ smile. Angela continued to stare at her for a few moments before giving her an assenting grunt, wrapping a _very_ tightly splint around her left knee. “Thanks, Angie.”

Lena pushed herself off the bed and began to hobble her way back to her quarters. Angela didn’t even bother offering her crutches anymore to keep her from walking on her injuries; she knew that Lena would ignore it at every opportunity and that she would be wasting her breath. Once she found herself back in her quarters, Lena sat at her desk and tapped her fingers on the wood. Her conversation with Widowmaker had been running through her mind almost constantly since the sniper had disabled her and left.

When Widowmaker had disabled Athena and snuck her way into the med bay the day after she had been injured in the explosion, the assassin had been conflicted and confused throughout their interaction. There was a stark difference when compared to the interaction in the hotel in Oasis; Widowmaker had been confident and flirtatious, admitting to sending her gifts of a sexual natural so openly that it had surprised her. Who knows _where_ that conversation would have gone had she been able to keep herself from running her mouth. The difference between those two versions of Widowmaker confused Lena.    

Lena picked up her holopad that had been resting on her desk and began searching through the files they had on Widowmaker. She wasn’t sure if Angela was still having her access monitored when it for whenever she looked at anything to do with Widowmaker and Amélie but she didn’t care anymore, the curiosity of getting to know more about what they had done to her was getting the better of her.

When Lena had discovered the identity of Widowmaker three years ago, Angela and Winston had begun trying to take their best educated guesses at what Talon had done to her to make her the way she is. The last time Lena had read these files she had skim read for what she had wanted to see at the time, the _possibility_ of reversal of what they had done was all she needed to know for her to continue forward with her plans. This time Lena did her best to read the file in its entirety to make sure she understood everything that they believed went into turning Amélie into Widowmaker.

It was filled with medical mumbo jumbo that Lena had some trouble understanding but she was determined to work it out. As she read the files in front of her, she zeroed in on Angela’s conclusion that if they had changed Amélie’s personality into that of Widowmaker, that it would most likely be through the method of torture and mental reconditioning and therefore there would be a possibility of either Amélie breaking through it herself or someone else being able to break through it for her. Lena had purposefully kept the details of her conversations with Widowmaker a secret from Angela and Winston out of fear that they might think her _even more_ crazy than they did currently.

Lena tucked her holopad under her arm and hobbled her way back down to the med bay and Angela’s office. She needed to be more honest with Angela in order to get the doctor to tell her whether what Widowmaker had been saying seemed to be a break in conditioning like she had been thinking since the assassin appeared in the med bay. Lena already suspected she was correct on that but it didn’t _hurt_ to get someone else’s opinion. She knocked on the door to her office and waited patiently to be let in, tapping her fingers nervously on the holopad. Lena knew that Angela would initially be upset that she had been hiding these conversations from her but would not be able to resist the curiosity it presented her.

The door slid open after a minute or two of Lena waiting and she watched as Fareeha tried to discreetly slip out of the office. Lena’s face twisted into a smirk as she made eye contact with the Egyptian woman. She had always suspected there to be something more between Angela and Fareeha though the pair had always vehemently denied it, but the flush on Fareeha’s cheeks told her a different story.

“Is Angie all composed in there? Am I good to go in and talk to her?” She was going to milk this for all it was worth.

“I-Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Angela’s free to see you.” Fareeha stammered out quickly before heading down the hall in a manner that reminded Lena of a dog fleeing with its tail between its legs. Lena snickered to herself under her breath before entering the office.

Angela stood behind her desk, her face flushed as she desperately tried to retie her hair in a high ponytail. She quickly took a seat as she tried to rearrange the papers and books on her desk, trying to hide the worse than normal disarray from Lena. Lena cleared her throat to announce her presence and get the doctor to look up at her.

“Is there anything in this office that I should be afraid of touching or sitting on?” Lena didn’t want to give up this wonderful opportunity to tease the poor doctor until Angela slammed her palms down with splayed fingers in frustration and embarrassment.

“What is it you need, Lena?” The doctor seemed to try her best to give Lena a warm smile, brushing off the topic. Lena decided to let Angela get out of her teasing after that tone; she did have a reason to talk to her after all.

“I need to be honest with you, luv.” Lena ran her gloved hands nervously through her hair before continuing, “I told you that sometimes when I had my run ins with Widowmaker that we would talk. I’ve been testing for years what emotions I can get from her by saying different things which is part of why she injures me sometimes, makes her angry. More recently she’s been saying a lot more, admitting that she remembers some things.” Lena took a seat in the chair in front of Angela’s desk and passed her the holopad with the files on Widowmaker open on the screen.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Angela’s eyebrows drew together in worry, her blue eyes scanning her up and down as she waited for an answer.

“Was worried about what you would say about my plan, knew you would be upset about me putting myself in extra danger ‘cause of my ‘crazy obsession’ or whatever it is everyone has been calling it behind my back.” She gave a small shrug at the look of embarrassment that crossed Angela’s face, clearly having not been aware that Lena had known _exactly_ what everyone had been saying. “Anyway, for most of the past three years, I would only get a small flash of emotion from her which usually was anger before she injured me whenever I brought up something from her past. Then the thing with my hands happened, she used my real name _and_ called me by that pet name she always used for me. Chérie _._ She _was_ strangling me but the explosion wasn’t her, not her style. She warned me that it was going to happen and then she took me to you to get help...” Lena drifted off, worrying her lip between her teeth.

“And…? I already knew most of that. What do you need to be more honest about?”

“The first night after I was brought back to base, Widowmaker disabled Athena and snuck into the med bay to see me.” Angela’s jaw dropped at that admission as Lena continued talking, she was hoping to fill the silence to prevent the doctor from yelling at her, “She said she remembered my real name but didn’t know why, she also said she didn’t know why she decided to come check on me. Something about wanting to make sure I was okay.”

“She… She wanted to make sure you were okay?” Angela tilted her head to the side in disbelief, obviously confused before leaning back in her office chair and began thinking.

“Yeah, luv. She left before she gave more detail. Kissed my forehead too. She wasn’t wearing any of her Widowmaker gear, she looked exactly like Amélie did before she was taken except with the blue skin and the golden eyes. Anyway, you know how I received all those strange gifts in the mail when I was stuck here on base?”

“Yes, I remember. It drove you up the wall trying to figure out who was sending you the gifts.” Angela picked up a pen and searched for a pad of paper on her desk to write some notes. Usually the doctor was clean and organised until it came to her research.

“Next time I saw her, just the other day in the hotel. She admitted to sending me the gifts including the… uhh… the toy. She wanted to make sure that I… appreciated them. Then she cornered me against a wall and started running her hands all over me. Only stopped when I asked if she was remembering stuff about us.” It was Lena’s turn to flush with embarrassment in this meeting; she would have kept those details to herself if she thought that Angela would talk to her about the possibility of Widowmaker’s conditioning breaking down without it.

“I see. Why do you suddenly feel the need to tell me all of this after keeping it to yourself for _over_ two months?” Lena winced at the doctor’s tone before gesturing with a gloved finger to the holopad she had given Angela as her initial response.

“I tried to figure out whether this would be ‘cause she’s breaking her conditioning on her own from the files you and Winston put together on what you think happened to her. It was filled with far too much technical stuff for me to really understand so I was hoping you’d help me. What sort of things should one expect as someone broke mental reconditioning?” Angela twirled the pen between her nimble fingers as considered the risk of talking to Lena about this, not wanting to encourage her behaviour but at the same time intrigued by what had happened. Lena was banking on that intrigue outweighing her concern. Several moments of silence passed between them.

“Alright. I’ll entertain the idea with you. If Widowmaker was breaking her mental reconditioning you’d be seeing erratic behaviour, changes in demeanour. Possibly she would share conflicting memories. She’d probably begin taking more risks. All of this is speculation at best; Winston and I have no actual evidence on what they did to her so I don’t want you getting your hopes up.” The doctor reached her hand out as if trying to steady Lena and her emotions. Lena brought her hand up to her mouth, chewing the first knuckle of her index finger between her teeth as she considered what Angela had told her.

“You know you say that a lot. ‘Don’t get your hopes up.’ Don’t worry about it Angie, I won’t go jumping the gun on this. Might go talk to Winston about it as well if you don’t mind, get his thoughts on this?” Lena asked as she stood from her chair, reaching across the desk for the holopad. Lena knew she wouldn’t be able to resist getting in contact with Widowmaker _even_ more now that she knew the signs and knew that Widowmaker was matching them. Even as far back as three years ago, each time she encountered Widowmaker there was a difference in personality that seemed to show no pattern but now it was obvious. She also knew that Angela would suspect that Lena wouldn’t be able to resist and would try to find a way to stop her from doing anything ‘stupid’ with her incessant mothering. Lena headed towards the door, catching the look of concern on Angela’s face as she exited.

                                                                                                                     X

Angela sat at her desk watching Lena leave her office. She twirled her pen between her fingers for a few moments before bringing it to her mouth and chewing on the tip of it. Some part of her _had_ hoped that Lena would eventually run out of steam when it came to her dedication to rescuing Amélie even if she knew realistically that Lena was stubborn, unending ball of energy. Angela found herself feeling torn. She didn’t want to let Lena go off on her own devices with the chance that Widowmaker could be lulling her into a false sense of security, playing with the girl’s emotions. At the same time she also found herself wondering if Amélie was beginning to push back on the mental conditioning that she suspected the assassin had been given, wondering if Lena could be right.

She knew there was always the _possibility_ that it could happen even if she hadn’t thought it likely, there was a reason she included it in the report in the first place. As much as her professional curiosity needled at her to let Lena continue what she was doing, find out if this was real and possible as she had suspected but the risks were too great. Lena would take the information she gave her and run with it regardless of those risks, she knew she would have to do something that would make Lena furious.

“Athena, would you please ask Winston to have a meeting with Morrison and I in his lab immediately?” Angela asked as she finished drawing up her notes on her conversation with Lena.

“What is it regarding?”

“Agent Tracer.”

“Of course, Dr Ziegler.” Angela gathered up her notes and began heading towards Winston’s lab. She gave her best neutral greeting to Fareeha as she passed her leaving the gym. She could at least trust Lena not to tell anyone what she had seen back at her office.

When Angela entered Winston’s lab, she found Morrison standing by the scientist’s desk discussing something she didn’t catch before they noticed her presence. Morrison turned away from Winston to face her as she approached them both.

“Thanks for arriving so quickly.”

“Yes, it’s not like either of us have anything better to do, Dr Ziegler.” Morrison snarked, causing Angela to roll her eyes, deciding to ignore his comment.

 “What is it you wanted to discuss, Angela?” Winston attempted to cut the tension between the two of them, the scientist frequently acted as a mediator between the two of them.

“I think we need to suspend Tracer from active duty for a while, I’m worried about her… determination to rescue Widowmaker. She came to my office and told me that Widowmaker disabled Athena and snuck into the med bay to ‘check if she was okay’ two months ago after the injury to her hands and kept it to herself the entire time.” Angela jumped slightly as Morrison slammed the end of his closed fist on Winston’s desk.

“She’s out of control and risking our missions. Widowmaker knows how to disable out security systems and Tracer kept that information to herself. How can we know she’s not willing to switch sides, like Reaper, to be with Widowmaker?” Angela rolled her eyes for the second time this meeting, she knew Lena might be a risk to her own safety but she would never willingly join or support Talon.

“You know that Lena loves Overwatch far too much to betray us. She wouldn’t switch sides to be with Widowmaker, you know it Morrison. She might have kept that information to herself but she would have done it for Amélie, not for Widowmaker or Talon.” Winston said before Angela got the chance.

“It doesn’t matter whether she did it for Amélie or Widowmaker, it’s a pointless distinction, they’re the same person now even if Lena doesn’t want to accept it.” Angela and Winston shared a look over Morrison’s shoulder.

“There are some things that I can’t say due to confidentiality but while I _don’t_ think Lena would _ever_ betray Overwatch, Morrison, I _do_ think she might put herself in a position to get killed in pursuit of getting Amélie back.”

“What’re you suggesting?” Winston asked her.

“Like I said, I think we need an indefinite suspension while I work with her.”

“Don’t you think this is well outside your specialty? You’re many things, Angela, but you’re not a psychiatrist. Maybe it’s time to force her to speak to someone else.” Winston’s words were filled with concern; she wasn’t surprised by that suggestion. Angela had had the same thought a few weeks into trying to help Lena through her problems, but the former pilot barely spoke to her as it was, there was no way to convince her to speak to someone she didn’t know and trust.

“She won’t speak to anyone else. Trust me when I tell you that, Winston. I have tried.” Winston nodded before looking to where Morrison stood, arms crossed over his chest.

“Give Tracer an indefinite suspension, if she doesn’t start cleaning up her act soon, we’ll need to talk about letting her go from Overwatch.” Morrison said in his low, gruff voice before stalking off and out of the lab.

“You know that she’ll be furious, right? Do you have a plan? Because I certainly don’t wish to be the one to tell her.” Winston looked up at her before returning to his work on his computer. Angela took in a deep breath before turning on her heel and heading back to her office.  


	5. Chapter 5

It was only two hours after Lena talked with Angela in her office about what she had been keeping secret about Widowmaker that her admin access had been blocked. She had been scrolling through the intel they had on the sniper’s activities when she wasn’t on missions for Talon when the files closed by themselves and she couldn’t reopen them, a small notification popping up on the screen to let her know her access had been restricted by Winston.

Lena took deep breath. _One. Two. Three._ Exhale. Another deep breath. _One. Two Three._ She clenched her fists; the sound of leather twisting under her grip was the only thing she could hear while the rage was building up inside her. The techniques that Angela had given her to control her anger when Morrison was around were beginning to crumble quickly. A deep breath. _One. Two. Three._

There was a rap at her door before Angela took the liberty to let herself in when Lena didn’t respond straight away. Lena couldn’t look at her, the fact that she was here in her quarters meant that the administrative block was from her, even if Winston was the one who carried it out.

“Lena? Are you alright?” There was a hand on her shoulder. It took all of Lena’s strength not to smack the hand away or raise her voice at the doctor. She had decided to trust Angela enough with telling her about what happened between her and Widowmaker even though she knew there was a chance the doctor would decide she was at risk to herself but she had _hoped_ she would be wrong. She had also **_hoped_** that Angela would keep this between them.

“What do you want?” Lena continued to try her deep breathing exercises to keep herself calm but it came out more like loud, heavy panting.

“We’re putting you on indefinite suspension while I try to help you. You should consider taking some personal time. This is for your own good.” Without thinking, her clenched fist slammed down on the holopad in front of it, breaking the glass of it. She heard what sounded like someone chanting ‘get out’ until Angela’s reaction made her realise it was her that had been saying it. The doctor stepped back and let Lena have her space as she processed her anger, stepping out of her quarters. As soon as the door closed behind Angela, Lena’s hand swept across the top of her desk and knocked all of her belongings to the floor.

It took forty-five minutes of hobble-pacing back and forth from the door to the back wall of her quarters, the destruction of some of her belongings (including a hole kicked into her wardrobe door) and a freezing cold shower for the anger to finally cool off. She sat herself down on the edge of her bed and pulled her leather gloves back on as she was redressing after the shower. They had placed an indefinite suspension on her and even though Lena had refused to let Angela speak or give any of the details of that suspension she could fill in the gaps with educated guesses. The suspension would most likely remain in place until Angela signed off on it personally which would probably involve giving up on her search for Amélie or at least seriously scaling it back.

The suspension left Lena with two options, either she would have to give in and give them what they wanted _or_ she would have to ignore their orders and prove them wrong as soon as possible. The details of the suspension at this point was only to do with her being kept off of active duty, it had nothing to do with her comings and goings on and off base, at least not yet. They couldn’t stop her from making the most of her suspension and leaving base to pursue something more personal.   

Lena began to search through the disaster site that her quarters had become, she was already a messy person as anyone who ever saw how she lived pointed out, but her outburst had made the existing mess worse. After ten minutes of searching she found her phone underneath her bed, it must have been thrown there somehow and she rang Angela, she couldn’t lie to the doctor in person. It’s not that she felt guilty about lying to the doctor, especially not after what just happened, but Lena had never been a good liar, her face always gave away the game.

“Lena? Is everything alright?” Angela answered after the first ring; she must have been waiting to hear from her.

“Yeah, Angie, everything’s alright. Just needed some time to process my anger is all. Now that I’ve calmed down, I think I need to take this suspension to get some personal time, like you suggested.  Might go back to London for a few days, maybe I’ll reconnect with some old friends.” Lena worried her lip between her teeth as she hoped that Angela would buy her lie, she had no real intention of going back to London or taking any actual personal time in the way that the doctor would think of it.

“Really?” Angela asked after a few moments, disbelief showing in her voice, she had obviously never expected Lena to actually take up her suggestion. Lena had never agreed to take personal leave so easily in the past.

“Yeah, I think it would be good for me. You guys are right." Lena paused for a moment, "You were right, Angie. Been pushing on this Amélie thing too hard and I need to step back. I put everyone at risk by not saying Widowmaker knew how to disable Athena.” She was doing her best to keep herself from laying the lies on too thick but also trying to stroke the doctor’s ego, telling her how she was right was one way to soften her up. She knew Angela well enough to know that she could hide behind saying she had been wrong.

“I’m… I’m glad to hear that you agree. I think a few days personal time would be good for you then we’ll need to see each other more often when you get back.” The way Angela phrased that told her it wasn’t a request; she wanted Lena back in therapy for probably multiple sessions a week. She still saw Angela occasionally but Lena had never liked talking about her feelings with anyone, as soon as she could find wiggle room and get out of therapy, she did. Her insomnia and nightmares hadn’t gotten much better, not really, but Angela didn’t need to know that. Certainly not after going to Winston behind her back and getting her access restricted.

“Thanks for understanding, Angie.” She waited a few seconds before ending the call and sliding the phone into her pocket. Lena switched her sweatpants out for some jeans and picked up her leather jacket off the floor. She opened the now broken door to her wardrobe and grabbed her duffle bag from the back of it and shoved a whole bunch of clothes into it, burying her pulse pistols underneath it. Before she had been blocked out of the intel files she was reading, it had mentioned that Widowmaker had been spotted in Geneva, Switzerland a few times at a cemetery. Angela didn’t need to know that she wasn’t really going to London.

                                                                                                                     X

Lena took the first available train from Gibraltar to Madrid and then from Madrid to Geneva. She was thankful for the speed of trains these days when she managed to arrive later that night. The first night she stayed in a motel next to the train station and left first thing the following morning, picking up a map of the city from the front desk. It had been quite a while since she had been in Geneva and she had only ever visited the cemetery where they chose to bury Overwatch agents just once after she had been brought out of the Slipstream.

She took a bus from the motel and got off a few blocks away from her actual destination. As she walked through the front gates of the cemetery Lena scanned her surroundings, she could only hope that her interpretations of what intel Overwatch had were correct. It took a few minutes but she managed to locate her own grave. They had held a memorial service after she’d disappeared in the Slipstream, even picking out a grave stone for her before they had found out she was actually alive. It had been on their to-do list to remove it before Overwatch was disbanded and then since the recall, it had been far from a priority to fix the mistake. It was certainly weird to stand in front of your own grave stone. As far as she knew, Amélie had picked it out before she was taken; the Frenchwoman had kept her preference for simplicity in mind. Gérard’s grave was only a few metres away, two grave stones between them.

Lena dropped her bag on the grass in front of her own grave stone and sat beside it, crossing her legs. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and played some of the games she had installed on it on the train ride to Geneva. It would only be a matter of time until Widowmaker showed up here if her guess had been right. She had been spotted visiting both her and Gérard’s grave a handful of times and had probably gotten away with visiting more than that. Lena hoped that she was right in her suspicion that Widowmaker would have her eye on this place, or at least a way to know that she was here. She could be patient when she had to be.

It took just over two hours and forty-five minutes for Widowmaker to arrive, making herself known through her steps crunching the leaves on the ground. She probably could have done it without Lena noticing her presence. Lena looked up from her game on her phone to see Widowmaker walking towards her wearing something very similar to what she had worn the night she snuck into the med bay. She waited patiently as the distance between them closed, the sniper stopping just over a metre away from where Lena sat in front of her grave stone.

“I assume you are waiting here because you wanted my attention and not because you felt the need to visit your own grave, chérie.” Lena’s heart fluttered at the sound of Widowmaker’s voice. Even after whatever Widowmaker had been put through, her accent had remained the same but the warmth had disappeared from her voice. This time she could hear it slightly and it made her heart sing.  

“Yeah, luv. It was the best guess I had for trying to find you outside of mission so you don’t _have_ to kick my face in when we talk.” Widowmaker made a soft noise at the back of her throat as she seemed to consider that. Lena pushed herself up off the ground with her hands and stood in front of the sniper, brushing the grass and dirt off her pants.

“You are different now, you know.” Lena examined Widowmaker’s face for a few moments after she spoke, trying to decipher the meaning of what she’d said, the assassin kept her normal cool, calm expression.

“Different how?”

“You used to have this look in your eyes when you got be with people you cared about or got to do what you enjoyed. I only know it from what I can remember, not from what I have seen since…” She made a gesture with her index finger at Lena’s chronal accelerator.

“How do you know? Been watching me, luv?”

“Would it please you if I said yes?” Widowmaker’s face pinched with amusement as a light flush dusted Lena’s cheeks.

“Might do.” Lena ran a gloved hand through her unruly hair before continuing, “So you remember me? How much?” The assassin pursed her lips, hesitating to answer but at least she wasn’t hurting Lena already so that was an improvement.

“I do not know exactly how much I remember… new things come to me from time to time. Sometimes a new memory comes to me without it being provoked, other times a new memory comes to me because of something I hear, see or smell.”

“What do you know about me outside of what you’ve read in Talon files? What do you remember?” Widowmaker folded her arms over her chest and took in a slow, deep breath with her eyes running along the horizon.

“I remember that I was married to a man name Gérard Lacroix. I also remember that that did not stop me with being with you behind his back. What I remember is mostly brief fleeting moments of times we talked and times where we had sex.” Lena’s ears burned with her bluntness, even if it was just the two of them here. There were a few silent moments between them before Widowmaker hummed briefly. “I felt very little guilt about being with you from what I can gather about my feelings at the time; I definitely… loved you more than Gérard.” The former pilot’s breath hitched in her throat when she felt a cool hand brush against her hip before sliding around her waist, arm reaching into Lena’s open jacket as she pulled them closer together.

“Don’t worry, luv. I felt more than enough guilt for the both of us.” Lena stared into Widowmaker’s golden eyes, it took every bit of Lena’s will power to keep her arms to her sides and not touch the assassin. She couldn’t risk scaring off whoever this was, whether it was Amélie pushing through or a softer side of Widowmaker. It was like night and day, comparing this version of Widowmaker to the one she saw in most engagements on the field, to the one she met in Oasis.

“You have been chasing after me all these years and you have not moved on. Why?” They were close enough now that Lena could feel Widowmaker’s breath on her cheek; the former pilot was still keeping her back straight and her arms to her side. She was going to let the assassin have control of the entire encounter, no matter how much she wished to toss that to the side and make up for four years worth of lost time, check that this really was real.

“I think you know the answer to that already. I love you and that won’t change, it doesn’t matter to me what Talon made you. Let me help you. Come back to Overwatch with me. Or we can go elsewhere, it doesn’t really matter.” Lena could feel two short breaths graze along her cheek before Widowmaker’s lips were on hers. She brought her hand up to clutch Widowmaker’s coat as she kissed back. It was incredibly, wonderfully familiar. The only real difference was how cold her lips felt when pressed against her own. Lena brought her other hand up to brush some of Widowmaker’s hair out of her face when it tickled her cheek. She couldn’t really believe that it had gotten this far without the assassin attacking or disabling her in some way.

“I am conflicted about you. Sometimes I feel so much that I think that I might drown in it, other times I feel so little about you that it would not bother me to hurt you. It is different when I see you through _her_ eyes.” Widowmaker murmured, her lips hovering over Lena’s. She was ignoring Lena’s suggestion that they run from Talon together. “It is hungry and predatory in a way that scares me but she has not killed you yet. Though I guess that does not really mean anything. She likes to play with her food, even more so when the person means something to me. I am not in control but I still have to watch what happens. It makes me feel uneasy.” Lena’s head was spinning; the assassin trusted her enough to share all of this with her and had just kissed her, something that the former pilot had been imaging for four years since she was pulled out of the Slipstream.

Lena stood in Widowmaker’s arms in a sort of stunned silence before the assassin brought one hand up to brush her fringe out of her face. She pressed her lips against Lena’s again as her free hand slipped something into her back pocket, Lena’s eyebrows furrowing in confusion at the sensation.

“I have given you a way for me to contact you, chérie. Go back to Overwatch and wait for me to call you.” Widowmaker pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and smoothed her hand through Lena’s hair before stepping away. She watched in silence as the sniper left the cemetery, leaving her to stand by her own grave stone alone. Did the assassin have a plan? Why would she give her a way to be contacted? She was still trying to process what she had been told; trying to process that Widowmaker seemed to view herself as Widowmaker and someone else. Did she see herself as both Amélie and Widowmaker, like two different people inside one body?  


	6. Chapter 6

Lena had decided to go straight from the cemetery to the nearest pub, she certainly needed a drink. She sat herself at the bar and demanded the strongest drink they had. It ended up being some awful mixed drink that made Lena cough hard after the first sip. Widowmaker had arrived at the cemetery faster than she had expected and that left Lena with not much to do apart from sit and think about what she was going to do now. She could at least drink while she did it.

The former pilot placed her arms on the bar top and rested her cheek on her forearm, sighing loudly to herself. She didn’t know exactly what she would do with what Widowmaker had told her, it’s not like she could go back to anyone at Overwatch and tell them what happened, especially not Angela or Morrison. She knew Angela had gotten her suspended from missions because she thought that she was doing the right thing but that didn’t make Lena any less angry. Winston might listen to her. Might. He was one of the few at Overwatch that she still had faith in.

Anything that Lena might tell them about what she found would sound like she either lying or deluded but she couldn’t leave the assassin in Talon’s hands. She had no ability to resisting trying to help her before but meeting her here had only made it harder, not when she had gotten a brief taste of what things used to be, what they _could_ be. Lena pulled out the cheap phone that Widowmaker had slipped into her back pocket in the cemetery, there was no way for her to use it to contact the assassin, she had checked. She would definitely have to wait for Widowmaker to contact her first. Lena hated waiting.

After several drinks, Lena pushed herself off her stool at the bar and picked up her duffle bag off the floor. Standing up made her realise exactly how much she had let herself drink since she came into the pub but she figured she could still get herself home alright. She slung the handles of the bag over her shoulder as she began making her way to the nearest motel she knew of; at least she had a few more days to come up with a strategy of some kind. A few more days to come up with a way to convince Winston to help rescue Amélie. Or Widowmaker. Or whoever she really was now.

Lena managed to walk several blocks away from the bar before someone grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and pulled her into some building. The momentum and the alcohol caused her to stumble a few metres as she heard the door close behind her. She managed to right herself before she fell flat on her face and turned to see who had brought her inside, finding no one in here with her. It appeared to be some sort of empty office, the people who worked here gone for the night.

A whirring noise coming from her chronal accelerator brought her out of her thoughts; she looked down to her chest to find the blue light dimming. Lena desperately clawed at it as if it would make a difference, panic setting in as thoughts of disappearing back into the Slipstream again raced through her mind.

“Don’t worry, rápido, you’re not going to disappear. I’ve just blocked you from using it to get away. We need to talk.” Sombra said as she materialised in a few metres in front of her. Lena only recognised who she was from the abilities being used, she had never seen Sombra out in the field, it had never been her style to join the front line of battle.

“Talk?” Lena’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, the panic disappearing as fast as it had arrived. She shouldn’t have been so easily consoled by the hacker’s word. “What would we need to talk about?”

“We need to talk about araña.” Sombra huffed slightly in annoyance as she realised that Lena didn’t know who she meant, “Widowmaker. Amélie. You’re going to get her killed at this rate, rápido.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I mean that Reaper is not a friend to Widowmaker like I am. He has suspicions that Widowmaker’s conditioning is failing but he won’t act unless he’s given a reason. You’re giving him a reason to, amiga.”

“What do you want me to do then?”

“It was interesting to watch her play with you, even more fun to assist her with disabling your Overwatch AI, but now she can’t stop and Talon can make another Widowmaker. They can learn from their mistakes. Either you finally rescue her like you’ve been running your mouth saying you’d do for years or you back off. Understand?” Lena nodded. “Bueno. I’ve grown to like her so don’t get her killed, rápido.”

                                                                                                                     X

Sombra had disappeared much like she had appeared in the first place, leaving Lena standing by herself in the office building. A few moments after the hacker had left her chronal accelerator had whirred like it had done earlier and the reassuring blue light came back on. The hacker had taken the phone that Widowmaker had given her and informed her that she would be making adjustments to it, that she would give it back later when it was actually safe to use it, when it would be impossible for the pair of them to be tracked by it.

Lena clenched her fists tightly as she processed what Sombra had actually said to her, it finally occurred to her that throughout her endless pursuit of rescuing Amélie that she hadn’t once really thought about how it could affect the assassin. She’d only really ever imagined one day finally succeeding and having Amélie back in her arms, it was embarrassing to realise that she hadn’t done much more thinking than that. She hadn’t considered what might happen if she weren’t successful or even if Amélie was successfully rescued, they might try to take her back. Lena fumbled for her phone in her pocket, dialling Winston. She would need Winston’s help as soon as possible, she couldn’t delay coming up with a plan if Sombra was being honest.

“Lena? Is everything alright?” Winston had answered on the second ring, his voice laden with concern.

“Yeah, luv. Is there any reason why everything shouldn’t be alright?” There was a slight hesitation before the scientist answered.

“No, it’s just that you haven’t willingly taken any personal time in years.” Another hesitation before he continued, “How’s London?”

“London’s good mate but I think I’ll be coming back to base sooner than planned. London isn’t what I was expecting it to be. Should be home in a day or so.”

“Oh, I see. Let us know if anything changes.” Lena ended the call and placed the phone back in her jacket pocket. Something about that conversation had been strange but Lena couldn’t place her finger on what.

Lena stayed at a motel that night and took the first train back to Madrid then to Gibraltar the next day. She still hadn’t come up with much of a plan on her return trip, deciding to take the risk that Winston would help her. She hoped he’d help her with trying to get to Widowmaker despite Morrison and Angela’s protests. If he refused to help her then she would have to go after Amélie alone. Assuming Sombra was telling the truth, she either had to finally successfully rescue her or leave her be and she knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she gave up.

When Lena finally arrived back at base, it took Athena several moments to actually let her in which caused her to scrunch her face up in confusion. Once inside she was met with Winston, Angela and Morrison all waiting for her, causing her heart to sink. She could see the look of anger on Morrison’s face and she knew that they knew.

“You went to Switzerland to see Widowmaker?!” Morrison yelled so loud it bounced off the walls in the room. Lena clenched her fists and took a few deep breaths.

“You had me followed?” Lena asked, trying to keep her voice even as she looked at Angela and ignored Morrison. She knew it would have been her idea to have Lena monitored while she was away. The doctor cleared her throat before talking.

“We tracked your phone just in case. You didn’t go where you said you were going and then lied to Winston when you called.” Angela straightened her posture uncomfortably and looked away from Lena.

“If you just tracked my phone, how would you know about Widowmaker?”

“We didn’t until you didn’t deny it. Please don’t resist, Lena.” Lena stared at the three of them in disbelief, jaw hanging slightly agape.

“You’re going to put me in confinement?”

“Don’t fight us, Lena. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be while we work this out.” Winston was trying to soothe Lena, knowing the pilot would be furious and prone to doing dumb things. Lena exhaled harshly before dropping her duffle bag on the ground, surrendering to Morrison.

                                                                                                                  x

Within twenty minutes of Lena arriving back at the Watchpoint, Morrison had forced her to strip everything but her basic clothing before they fought over forcing Lena to remove the harness of her chronal accelerator.

“No, I’m not taking it off!” Lena hissed, clutching the straps of it so tightly her knuckles went white.

“You don’t need it to stay in time, we both know it. You _will_ remove it.” Even with years of therapy, Angela still hadn’t managed to get Lena to a point where she could remove the harness and keep it off when it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Lena knew logically that she wouldn’t fade away if it wasn’t on but that didn’t stop the panic attacks, that didn’t stop the overwhelming fear. Winston and Angela had stepped outside of the holding area, they had left Morrison to do their dirty work for them and it made Lena seethe with bitterness.

“I-I can’t take it off!”

“You can and you will.” The pair of them stood there, eyes locked before Morrison reached forward and undid the buckles on her harness before pulling it off her body.

“W-Wait!” Lena called out in as she was forced inside the holding cell, she couldn’t believe that this was happening. She could hear Morrison’s boots hitting the floor as he walked out of the holding area, taking Lena’s sense of security with him. She began banging her closed fists on the door, feeling panicked tears rolling down her cheeks already. “Winston! Winston, please!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nsfw warning :D

“Angela, this is cruel and you know it. It was unnecessary to take the harness from her, it’s unnecessary to have her in confinement. We both know that even if she met with Widowmaker, she’s not a threat to us. The only reason that she’s in there is because her lying to you made you angry.” Winston huffed angrily and gestured to the video footage of Lena in her holding cell.

She had laid down on the ground and curled up into a ball, holding her knees to her chest. Lena had spent the first thirty minutes desperately banging on the door to her cell and calling out for someone to return the harness to her between frantic breaths and sobs. It had taken every part of Winston’s will power to keep himself from letting her out and returning the harness to her but Angela and Morrison had outvoted him. All he could do now was try to convince the doctor to change her mind, appeal to her better side. He knew the doctor had been talked into this by Morrison while they were both in the height of anger.

“She met with Widowmaker behind our backs, she’s obsessed. At the very least we need to prevent her from going back out there and getting herself killed, we can’t know that Widowmaker is sincere with what she’s been saying to Lena, she could be trying to manipulate her feelings.”

“But we don’t need to lock her up and take away one of the things that comfort her in order to do it! We can put an ankle monitor on her, let her out and give her harness back. This is ridiculous and you know it.” Angela sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Winston felt relief at that; it was the doctor’s tell for giving into something.

“Fine, as long as you can prevent her from leaving the base and putting herself at risk again, you can let her out and give her her harness back.” As soon as Angela began to leave his lab, he gathered up Lena’s chronal accelerator harness and the ankle monitor that he’d been working on in the hours since they locked the former pilot up. He’d started designing the monitor as soon as they had decided, ignoring his protests, to put Lena in a holding cell. It would tell Athena Lena’s location constantly and if Lena tried to leave the confines of the base, it would deliver a high voltage shock to prevent her from leaving. Winston hated the idea of locking something like this around his friend’s ankle but it would be the only way to let her out without causing even more conflict. He hoped Lena would forgive him for how long it took to let her out.

When he opened the door to Lena’s holding cell, he found the agent lying on the floor like he had seen in the security footage, curled up in a ball with her knees to her chest. It took a few moments for Lena to look up and acknowledge Winston’s presence, her eyes red and puffy and cheeks stained with tears. She wasn’t crying anymore, it seemed that she had moved past her original desperate panic into a sad resignation. Her eyes brightened at the sight of her harness in Winston’s hands.

“Lena, I’m so sorry that we did this to you. I was outvoted by the others.” He didn’t have to name the person who’s idea it was, she could work it out on her own, “I’m here to give you your harness back and let you out of this cell but you’ll have to agree to an ankle monitor. It’s the best I could really do.” Lena sniffed and rubbed her eyes with the back of hand before standing up, taking the harness from Winston’s hands.

“Thanks, mate. I was afraid I didn’t have any friends in this place anymore. Thought you all believed I betrayed you guys.” She slipped her head and arms through the holes in the harness, tightening the straps and feeling relief begin to settle in. She closed her eyes and took a few calming deep breaths, letting the tension in her shoulders melt away.

“Angela cares for you, Lena. I may not agree with what she did but I can see why. She’s afraid that you’re going to get yourself killed and you know what she’s like when she gets concerned, when she thinks she’s right.” Lena nodded as she listened, she could understand but that didn’t make her any less angry. She brought her right foot up and propped it on the bed in the holding cell for Winston to put the ankle monitor on her.

“Doesn’t make suspending me from missions or telling things I told her in confidence right. Doesn’t make taking my harness away and locking me up in this cell right. I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive her for a while, luv.” Winston finished tightening the monitor; it was just loose enough to be comfortable. “I came back to base because there’s something I need your help with but I just want to go back to my quarters and rest first. I don’t want to see either Angela or Morrison.” Winston nodded as she spoke, stepping aside to let her out of the cell. He pulled a box out from the shelf behind him; it contained her jacket, gloves and boots that had been taken from her by Morrison.

Lena pulled her gloves on, slung her leather jacket over her shoulder and held the boots in her left hand as she began walking back to her quarters. She was grateful that it was late at night; it made it easier to avoid the other people living on base. She unlocked her quarters and entered, tossing her jacket over the top of her desk chair and dropping her boots on the floor. In the middle of her bed laid the phone that Widowmaker had given to her and Sombra had taken, a purple sticky note attached.

‘I made the adjustments for you, rápido. Enjoy.’

                                                                                                      X

Lena spent the next few days locked away in her quarters, refusing to speak to Angela any time she asked for permission to come in to see her. She couldn’t deal with the doctor and her guilt right now. She _certainly_ couldn’t deal with Angela telling her what to do. Before she had left she had broken her holopad so she had to wait for a replacement to arrive, in the meantime Lena spent most of her time re-reading most of the books she had. This was worse than when she was recovering from her burns, she couldn’t even leave base to keep herself entertained.

By the fourth day of her hiding away in her quarters, Hana made an attempt to see her. She knocked on Lena’s door and waited, refusing to leave until Lena let her inside.  Lena tried to out wait her but if there was anyone on base more stubborn than Lena, it was Hana. When she opened the door, she found Hana standing outside with a bunch of her gaming stuff that Lena had never really understood.

“You’ve been hiding away for days, sulking, so here I am to help you.” Hana spoke as she stepped past Lena and into her quarters without proper invitation. Lena didn’t have the motivation at the moment to really stop her. She watched silently as Hana began setting up before the phone that Widowmaker had given her caught her eye. Lena grabbed it off where she had left it on the bedside table and put it inside the first draw, hiding it from Hana. The sniper still hadn’t contacted her yet but she wasn’t too surprised by that, from the things she had said to Lena it seemed like either by herself or with Sombra’s help, she watched Lena closely. They probably knew that she was being closely monitored and couldn’t leave base as it was. Hana cleared her throat to bring Lena out of her thoughts, she must have been staring at her bedside table for a few minutes based on Hana being finally done with setting up.

“What game do you want me to kick your ass at first?” Hana smirked at her, holding up several game cases to show the front covers to Lena.

“You pick, I’m gunna lose anyway.” Lena felt her shoulders relax slightly, feeling glad that at least Hana was bothering to try make her feel normal.

It turned out just as Lena had suspected, it didn’t matter that she had above average reaction times from being a pilot, Hana was far better skilled at everything they tried. After her fifth consecutive loss, Lena threw her controller across the room with a frustrated groan which caused meka pilot to cackle loudly. She found herself laughing along with her after a few moments; at least things hadn’t changed that much between them over this. At least there was someone on this base other than Winston on this base who wanted to still be her friend.   

“You really think Widowmaker’s changed?” Hana’s face flattened a bit, her demeanour becoming a bit more serious.

“Well, I think she needs our help because Amélie is still in there somewhere and we owe it to her to try. Nobody else seems interested.” Lena averted her eyes as she spoke. Hana inhaled loudly and pushed herself up from where she sat on the floor.

“I don’t know if you’re right or wrong or whether I could ever trust Widowmaker but I do trust you, despite what Morrison has been ranting and raving about. If you think we should help her, then I’m on board.” Lena stared up at her from where she sat on the floor and gave her smile, the first genuine one she had given anybody since her suspension.

“Thanks Hana. I don’t think you know what that means to me.” Hana gave her a casual shrug before she began packing up her gear, only turning to speak again as she was about to leave.

“Besides, maybe if we rescue her, you’ll get yourself laid for the first time in years.” Lena gave a frustrated shout as she threw the closest thing she could, one of her shoes. She could hear Hana laughing on the other side of the door, the shoe bouncing off it as it closed.

                                                                                                  X

Eight days after Lena had returned to base, she had been napping in her bed late at night when she finally got a call. Her hand scrambled in the darkness for her phone as she brought it to her ear when she realised it wasn’t the right phone. Widowmaker was calling her on the cheap phone she had been given, the one that Sombra had adjusted. Lena pulled open the draw and grabbed it, bringing it to her ear.

“Hullo?” Her voice was still rough from sleep.

“Chérie, I see that you are free. I will meet you in twenty minutes, stay where you are.” Lena blinked a few times out of confusion.

“You see that I’m free?” The former pilot’s voice increased in pitch, squeaking as she realised that it hadn’t just been that Widowmaker was keeping a close eye on her in general. She had some way of seeing into the Overwatch base, seeing what she was up to. The sniper let out a low chuckle before responding.

“Oui. Like I said, stay where you are.” The call disconnected and Lena found herself lying in bed with the phone still pressed to her ear, her mind grasping for what this could all be about.

Sure enough twenty minutes later, Lena heard and then saw her window being pried open. She was suddenly glad that she had been given the quarters in the corner of the base, giving her windows in the first place. She couldn’t imagine Widowmaker trying to get to her quarters if she didn’t, a trail of unconscious bodies being left being. Lena watched as Widowmaker climbed through the window, her golden eyes piercing through the darkness. It should have been a lot creepier than she actually found it.

Lena climbed out of bed, throwing the sheets aside as Widowmaker’s feet hit the floor. She picked up her gloves from where they sat on her bedside table and pulled them on. It was only when she stood in front of the sniper that she realised she was in her pyjamas, a tank top and a pair of shorts with kittens on it. Lena felt her face warming up as the sniper’s golden eyes raked themselves over her body, a smirk growing at the sight of her shorts. She could already tell from the assassin’s demeanour that she was more Widowmaker than Amélie, more like how she was in Oasis and she felt her heart race a bit.

“So you wanted to talk, luv?” Widowmaker huffed at the question, it was almost a laugh.

“Who said I wanted to talk, chérie?” The sniper stalked towards Lena, closing the gap between them and backing the former pilot into the wall. One hand cupped Lena’s cheek and the other immediately going for her ass, pressing her body tightly against Lena’s.

“So you got me a phone just so you can come get laid?” Lena tried her best to project confidence, tried her best not to act like she was melting into a useless puddle under the sniper’s attention.

“Do not act like you have a problem with it, mon amour.” She purred in Lena’s ear and it made a shudder run up her spine, it had been far too long since she had heard that husky, French accent in her ear. Widowmaker pressed her lips to Lena’s to prevent any further discussion, the hand in her hair tightening its grip. It was rougher than the kisses they shared in the cemetery but also more exciting.

Widowmaker’s lips moved from Lena’s and began kissing along her jaw until she reached the pilot’s neck, no doubt leaving marks in her wake. She could feel the sniper’s other hand greedily pawing at her rear through her pyjama shorts. Her lips kept moving down after leaving some hickeys on Lena’s neck, reaching her collarbone and the straps of her accelerator’s harness. Lena was prepared to have to tell the assassin that she couldn’t remove the harness before she was forcibly turned around, her face pressed into the wall hard. It turned her on more than she would like to admit.

The hand that had been in her hair moved to palming her breasts through her tank top, around her accelerator. The sniper’s cold body was pressed up against her back as if she was trying to maximise the contact between them, as if she was trying to absorb all of Lena’s heat. She shuddered as she felt Widowmaker’s teeth drag along where her neck meets her shoulder.

“You are lucky you are adorable in those kitten shorts, chérie.” Widowmaker murmured against her neck as her hand slipped down the front of her shorts and into her underwear. Lena’s breath hitched in her throat. Widowmaker’s hips pressed harder into her, trapping Lena’s between her and the wall as she began circle the pilot’s clit harshly. Amélie had always been dominant and a little on the rough side but Widowmaker was aggressive on another level, she would be lying to herself if she said it wasn’t a turn on.

Lena found herself moaning a lot louder than she had ever in the past, feeling mortified by it but unable to stop herself. She was glad that Widowmaker was pinning her against the wall like this when the tremble in her thighs began to set in. Lena bit down on her lip harshly to try quieten herself but it only lasted a few moments until she felt the sniper pressed two fingers inside of her, using her palm to continue the ministrations against her clit. She let out a few breathy whimpers as kisses were pressed underneath her ear, gentle in comparison to the way Widowmaker’s hand moved in her shorts.

“Soyez silencieux, chérie. Do you want your little Overwatch friends to know an enemy is fucking you in your quarters like this?” Lena clenched her eyes shut, biting back further whimpers at what the sniper was purring in her ear. The hand in her shorts was unrelenting and Lena found herself teetering on the edge of orgasm much faster than she would have liked, her face burning with embarrassment.

“W-Widowmaker, p-please.” She didn’t know what she was asking for the sniper for really, her head was spinning.

“Come for me, Lena.” The assassin murmured against her neck before sinking her teeth into where her neck meets her shoulder, breaking the skin and drawing blood. Lena’s back arched as she came, hard. Widowmaker’s body pressed against her own prevented her from going anywhere, the hand in her shorts not ceasing until she had drawn out every moment of Lena’s orgasm.

Lena panted loudly and trying to catch her breath, pressing her face against the wall. Widowmaker withdrew her hand from inside Lena and her pants, making an embarrassing noise as she did so. As the assassin pulled away from her, her legs trembled and gave out, the pilot sliding down to her knees.

“Wowee. I haven’t come that hard in a long time, luv.” She shuffled around on her knees to face the assassin who had been standing behind her before dragging her fingers up the side of Widowmaker’s prosthetic leg to where it met her real knee. “Want me to return the favour?” Lena licked her lips and bounced her eyebrows up at Widowmaker who just flinched slightly at the contact to her leg before she took a step back.

“Non. I will go now, I got what I wanted.” Lena forced herself up from her knees. Widowmaker’s demeanour had changed sharply once she had touched her prosthetic leg which made her put two and two together.

“You worried about your legs, luv? It doesn’t bother me.” Lena reached out with a gloved hand and brushed the assassin’s cheek with her thumb. Widowmaker’s face softened at the touch as she leaned into her palm.

“I do not wish to discuss it. You can return the favour another time, chérie.” The way the sniper was so much more vulnerable than Lena had ever seen before, she was more Amélie than she was Widowmaker. She pressed a gentle kiss to Lena’s cheek before searching the room with her eyes and grabbing a towel she found. Widowmaker pressed the towel to Lena’s neck to clean up the blood from the bite mark she had left, murmuring apologies as she did so. “Wid- I got carried away, I hope it does not hurt too much.”

“It’s alright, luv. Will I see you again soon?” She ran her fingers through Lena’s hair, scratching softly at her scalp.

“We will see, mon amour. I hope so. Now I must go.” Lena nodded, letting Widowmaker slip out of her arms and reopen the window she had climbed through, exiting the same way she came in.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to thank everyone for reading! Hit 100 Kudos :D Also thank you for the comments, I love reading them.

After her late night meeting with Widowmaker in her quarters, Lena’s mood had lightened and her ‘sulking’ as Hana described it lessened. She decided to leave her room for the first time other than for meals and headed to the gym on the ground floor of the base. It been a while since her last mission or her last workout and she was itching to try do something, literally anything to pass the time. Lena was far too impatient and energetic to maintain her hiding. 

Fareeha was working on the other side of the gym and she could feel the cold shoulder from here, she could easily guess what Angela would have told her about what was going on with Widowmaker and Fareeha was just as opinionated as the doctor. Lena did her best to ignore it until she could get away from her, no point starting any further conflicts. 

She ran into Hana in the changing rooms, she hadn’t noticed her come in to the gym at any point. Hana talked at her about watching some movies back in her quarters later that night, something about some old films that she had found and wanted to try. Lena was only really half listening as she changed out of her sweaty workout gear until she heard the Korean girl cough behind her.

“You finally got laid, huh? How’d you manage to get a girl on base?” Lena clapped her hand to cover the bite mark that Widowmaker had left her with, her face turning a bright red. She’d somehow manage to forget that the assassin had seriously marked her up the other night, leaving her with some nice bruises and a large bite mark. It had been so long since she ever had to consider something like this that she hadn’t been careful.

“I-Uh. I…” Lena’s stammering and guilty flush gave the game away very quickly, Hana’s eyes widening in surprise as she put two and two together.

“Seriously? She came on base and you slept with her?” Hana rolled her eyes as Lena tried to shush her, tried to keep her quiet. The walls weren’t as thick as everyone thought.

“Hana, please don’t tell anyone. It-” The Korean girl gave out an exaggerated sigh and cut Lena off, putting on the dramatics.

“Alright, but you owe me one.” Lena stared at Hana with an incredulous look on her face; anyone else would have warned her about how she was going to get herself killed. She was grateful that Hana was making an attempt to make _whatever_ this thing with Widowmaker was more normal. “I’ll let you know what you owe me when I know.”

“I’m gunna go back to my room, let me know when you want to watch some films, luv.” Lena said as she shrugged her jacket on, using the mirror to make sure everything was covered this time. On her way back to her quarters she was cornered by Angela, clearly Fareeha had told her that she had spotted Lena out of her quarters for the first time in a while.

“Lena, you should come with me to my office so we can talk.” Lena refused to make eye contact with Angela, not wanting to give the doctor any way to manipulate her into saying yes. 

“Nope.”

“We need to talk about Widowmaker.”

“Nope”

Once Lena reached her quarters she slipped through the door and closed it in the doctor’s face before pressing her back up against it. Angela continued to try to convince her by talking at her through the door. Lena slowly slid down the door until she sat on the floor with her knees to her chest, waiting for the doctor to eventually give up. It took several minutes but she finally heard Angela’s heels clicking on the floor as she walked away. Lena took a few calming deep breaths.

“She’s really laying it on thick, aye, rápido?” Lena almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of Sombra’s voice. She stared up at where the hacker now stood in front of her and pressed her hand to heart as if in hopes to calm its pounding. “The good doctor feels guilty for what she did to you and is trying to force you into forgiving her.”

“What’re you doing here, Sombra?”

“You need to get your ass in gear, amiga. You need to go get Widowmaker now if you’re going to do it at all.”

“And how do I do that when I have this around my ankle?” Lena pulled up the hem of her sweatpants, showing Sombra the ankle monitor.

“You underestimate my skills.” With a wave of a purple gloved hand, the ankle monitor popped off and fell to the floor. “You should have about an hour before they notice you’re gone. I already packed your bags for you, amiga.” The hacker dropped a duffle bag and a backpack onto the ground in front of her. “Get your pulse pistols and fly the Talon drop ship I’ve left for you a couple blocks away. Everything you need to take Widowmaker with you is in the backpack, amiga, including the instructions. You take her and then go to London.”

Lena watched as Sombra disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared, leaving the Overwatch agent sitting on the floor of her quarters. She stared at the ankle monitor for a few moments before it clicked that the clock was ticking, she only had an hour to take advantage of. Lena pushed herself up to her feet and crossed the room to the window, forcing it as far open as it could go before picking up her bags and dropping them out to the ground below. It was a two storey drop but nothing she couldn’t blink through. She sat herself on the window sill and forced herself through the gap, blinking the distance.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she heard one of her phones ring to let her know she had a text message. It was the phone that Widowmaker had given her but the message was from Sombra, the address for the Talon drop ship. Lena rapidly blinked from the base to the address she had been sent by the hacker. It looked to be a much older model of the drop ships Talon currently uses, probably kept in some sort of spare warehouse for quite a while which would make it easy for Sombra to steal and for Lena to use.

The ship was just sitting in the alleyway with the doors open. It had been a long time since Lena had willingly sat in the pilot’s seat, it was on the list of things that she and Angela had agreed to try work on but they hadn’t gotten to it yet. They hadn’t even managed to get past trying to get Lena to be able to remove her harness for longer than what it took to take a shower. She took a shaky breath in before sitting down in front of the controls and began prepping for take-off.

The GPS came up with where she needed to go, where she would find Widowmaker. Lena picked up the backpack from where she had tossed it as she entered. She found a slip of paper in the front pocket with Sombra’s handwriting, it instructed her to fly to the location on the GPS and use the tranqualiser darts included to knock Widowmaker unconscious in order to fly her to London. There was also a set of restraints for when the assassin would wake and would try to go back to Talon as the note warned. Lena dropped the bag back onto the floor before taking off.

She followed the GPS instructions and took the drop ship to Hollywood. The first few minutes of the flight, Lena’s hands were shaking, her breathing a bit ragged. Once she was comfortably in the air, the panic began to settle. Nothing like jumping straight into the deep end to get rid of an irrational fear.

An hour and a half in she heard her regular phone ringing, causing Lena to realise that she had taken it with her and how stupid it was that she forgot. Lena put the ship into auto-pilot before heading to the back door, pulling the phone out of her jacket pocket. It was Winston calling, obviously trying to find out where she had disappeared to now that Sombra’s delay had run out. She opened the back door and tossed the phone into the ocean below.

Lena landed the drop ship exactly where the GPS guided her to do so; it was another back alley much like the one she had found it in back in Gibraltar. Her phone alerted her to another message once she had powered down the ship, it was Sombra again, this time she was giving Lena Widowmaker’s exact location now that she was here. Lena knelt down beside her backs, pulling out her pulse pistols, the tranqualiser darts and handcuffs.

The Overwatch agent opened the back door of the ship and blinked her way up onto the nearest building before pulling her phone out again, checking her location against Widowmaker’s. Lena blinked across the gaps between buildings until the assassin came into view; she crouched behind a wall as she checked to see if Widowmaker was actually alone. When she was satisfied, Lena stepped out and walked towards the sniper who was currently lying on her stomach, looking through her scope at the engagement below.

She made no attempt to conceal her movements, not wanting to sneak up on the sniper. Widowmaker stopped looking through her scope, turning to peer at Lena over her shoulder once she heard her boots on the concrete of the roof. The assassin smirked slightly as the Overwatch agent sat beside her.

“Bonjour, chérie. How are you?” Widowmaker asked before looking back through her scope. The casualness in her tone was surreal when Lena really thought about it; the pair of them should be feeling more uncomfortable about Widowmaker taking shots at targets as they talked.

“I’m alright, luv.” Lena watched Widowmaker for a few moments as she thought about what she would say next, she needed to take the sniper’s focus away from the battle. “I left Overwatch.”

Widowmaker pulled away from the scope again, narrowing her golden eyes at Lena as if she was trying to figure out whether she was joking or not. Lena laughed nervously under the attention and ran a hand through her hair.

“Quoi?” The assassin rested her rifle on the roof, propping herself up on her elbows and tilted her head at Lena.             

“Well… I didn’t leave Overwatch _exactly_. I didn’t tell them I was leaving or nothing but Sombra came and popped off my ankle monitor so I could come here and I assume I’m probably not going to be welcomed back.” Lena tried to offer the sniper a reassuring smile as worry seemed to settle in on her perfect features but it didn’t seem like it comforted Widowmaker at all.

“Imbécile. Why would you do that?”

“I did it for you, luv.” Widowmaker’s eyebrows drew together at that, still clearly very confused. Lena pressed her lips to the assassin’s before she could continue talking. She was feeling lucky that the sniper seemed to be more Amélie than she was Widowmaker today, making her easy to distract. The Overwatch agent dug her hand around in her pocket for the tranqualiser dart before plunging it into Widowmaker’s thigh. Widowmaker pulled away from Lena before looking at where the former pilot had stuck a dart into her thigh. “Sorry to do this to you, luv.”

Once Widowmaker had lost consciousness, Lena knelt beside her and rubbed at the back of her neck. She was already feeling the guilt of doing this to the sniper, but she was trying to trust Sombra, trying to trust that the hacker wouldn’t have told her to do this if it hadn’t been important. Lena scooped up Widowmaker’s body before putting her into a fireman’s carry over her shoulder, wheezing at the weight. She hadn’t really put much thought into getting Widowmaker back to the drop ship.

Lena grabbed Widow’s Kiss off the ground from where the sniper had left it and began trying to find her way back to the drop ship. She had to stop a few times to catch her breath and take a break, making a mental note to work on her strength in the near future. Lena stumbled her way back into the drop ship, managing to place Widowmaker gently on one of the jump seats before her legs gave out. She bent over, hands over her knees and tried to catch her breath.

She pulled out the handcuffs from her other jacket pocket and tightened one of the cuffs around Widowmaker’s right wrist without the gauntlet and grappling hook then tightened the other around the railing behind the seats. At least it would make it difficult if Widowmaker woke up and tried to flee. Lena strapped herself back into the pilot’s seat and adjusted the GPS; she didn’t need Sombra to tell her what she meant by ‘go to London’. She still owned an apartment in King’s Row from before the recall, one that no one from Overwatch, as far as she knew of, knew the address for.  They didn’t share that information due to the restriction on contact due to the PETRAS Act and Lena had never gotten around to selling it, just in case they had to split up or relocate.

Lena was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything had gone. She had been able to leave Gibraltar, fly to Hollywood and arrive in London with great ease; she would have to thank Sombra for all her work later. It could have been much harder. Lena ditched the drop ship as far away from where her apartment was as she could manage with having to carry Widowmaker. She had to do it in two trips, first blinking rapidly to the apartment with her bags and Widowmaker’s rifle before coming back for the assassin herself. The former pilot unlocked the cuff around the railing and closed it back around Widowmaker’s other wrist. She had to be quick, she had no idea how long the tranqualiser was going to last even if she did trust the assassin not to kill her upon waking.

It was quite the task to try opening the front door to her apartment with a full grown woman hanging over her shoulder. Lena dropped her keys multiple times and had to slowly squat closer to the ground to grab them before finally managing to force the door open. She was relieved to finally be able to place Widowmaker down on her bed in her room before once again removing the handcuff around her left wrist and attaching it to the headboard of the bed.

The apartment was just as she had left it the last time she visited almost a year ago except now everything was covered in dust. Lena dragged her bags over to the bed and took a seat on the ground. She rubbed her palms up and down her thighs in order to dig out some of the knots already building in her tired muscles.

                                                                                                                  X

Lena hadn’t realised she’d managed to fall asleep propped up in a sitting position against the bed until Widowmaker stirred on the mattress behind her. She used her hands to swivel around to face the sniper who was beginning to wake up. The former pilot watched as Widowmaker pulled at the handcuff as if she was going to use her hand to rub at her face only to find it restrained, she looked at it bleary eyed and confused before spotting Lena sitting nearby with an obnoxious smile on her face.

“How you doing, luv?” Widowmaker didn’t answer the question straight away, her golden eyes darting around the room to figure out where she was.

“Où suis-je?” The sniper tried to sit up, her wrist pulling against the handcuffs. Lena outstretched her hands in order to try calm Widowmaker.

“Don’t worry, luv. It’s just my apartment back in London. I’ll let you out in a moment when I trust you aren’t gunna jump out the window at the first chance.” Widowmaker’s eyes remained trained intently on Lena but she slowly relaxed her body back into the mattress. She was clearly waiting for Lena to continue explaining. “Sombra told me that you were in danger and I couldn’t leave you with Talon, she gave me all the things I needed to come get you and to hide from both Overwatch and Talon. They shouldn’t know where we are. She didn’t give me many details but I couldn’t leave you at risk, luv.”

“So you put everything at risk for us both because Sombra told you to?” Widowmaker raised a perfectly manicured brow at her, it sounded a lot dumber when it was phrased like that.

“’Course, luv. I mean, I don’t know why she would lie to me about that of all things. I would risk anything for you.” The assassin made a soft noise at the back of her throat as she was considering that, as if she weren’t sure how to respond. “Can I trust that you aren’t going to go running down the street if I let you out? I feel bad about having you handcuffed to my bed, luv.” Widowmaker’s lips twitched into a smirk before her free hand reached out for the collar of her jacket and pulled Lena forward, bringing her close enough to feel Widowmaker’s lukewarm breath on her skin.

“Do you really feel all that bad about having me handcuffed to your bed?” The assassin purred and Lena let out a nervous squeak causing Widowmaker to chuckle, “If it makes you feel better, I promise not to run away if you uncuff me.” She continued as she let go of Lena’s jacket, using her hand to smooth it down.

Lena nervously fumbled for the keys that Sombra had given her, her brain blanking after Widowmaker’s blatant flirting and change in demeanour. After a few seconds she finally managed to unlock the cuff and let Widowmaker free. She forced herself up to her feet and she dug around for the phone she still had.

“Do you want me to order you some take-away, luv? I haven’t eaten in a bit.” Widowmaker gave a casual shrug as Lena dialled the number she remembered for the Chinese shop a few blocks away. Lena walked out of the bedroom and into the small kitchen as she placed the order; she opened and closed cabinets to confirm what she already knew which was that there was nothing edible in the entire place, not even anything canned. When Lena walked back into the bedroom she found Widowmaker having a look around the room, a considerable frown on her face. “Everything alright, luv?”

“Non. There is a reason that I turned down all your requests for me to run away with you, for me to let you ‘rescue’ me. It’ll get you killed, chérie.” Lena shrugged slightly before taking off her jacket and tossing it on top of the bags on the floor.

“Sombra told me that I was going to get you killed with how everything was going. I had to do what I had to do. Like I said, I’d do anything for you, luv.” Widowmaker suddenly pulled Lena into a tight hug, running her hand through her hair as she murmured a thank you.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys :D once again thanks for reading. I just wanted to leave the link to my tumblr here so if anyone wants to talk or send me a request or something you can. It's twoheartedalien2-0. I'm working on some Widowtracer one shots and I'm open to suggestions or requests on that. This chapter is a mixture of smut, fluff and a bit of sadness so just an NSFW warning. :D

Lena had Widowmaker wait in the bedroom when the food delivery guy arrived, the last thing she needed was some kid seeing a blue skinned woman lurking around and telling people about it. It took some prodding but the assassin gave in and tried the food Lena had ordered for her, she looked at it as if she had never seen Chinese food before. It made Lena want to call the take-away place again and order everything they had on the menu just to have Widowmaker try everything. It was awful that Talon had damaged her memory but if there was anything positive to come from it, Lena could spend her time introducing her to new things if she’d let her.

“So what do you want me to call you?” Lena asked around a mouthful of fried rice causing Widowmaker to give her a mild look of disgust.

“Quoi?”

“I mean, I know Talon gave you the name Widowmaker but your name before that was Amélie. Do you have anything you want me to call you?” Part of Lena wanted to call Widowmaker by her old name, wanted to call her Amélie but she couldn’t bring herself to do that without the assassin’s say so. Lena didn’t want to force her past on the Frenchwoman if she wasn’t comfortable just because that’s what she had dreamed of since she found out Amélie was actually alive.

“I have no preference.” Widowmaker pursed her lips for a moment before continuing, “Can I take time to think about it?”

“Sure, luv. Is Widow okay in the meantime?” She asked while shoving another forkful of take-away into her mouth. The sniper simply nodded in reply as she used her fork to poke at some noodles. There was a short silence between them.

“Was it you or I that started the affair?” Lena choked slightly on her food as she tried to swallow; she hadn’t expected that question at all. Widow had never asked questions before at all really. She coughed a few times to clear her throat before answering.

“I-Uh. You, I guess. I had the biggest crush on you for months and months before anything happened, I thought it was a secret but you knew the entire time. Affair started when you invited me over to your place for my birthday.”

“Did my… husband ever find out?” Widow had referred to Gérard with a hesitation that confused Lena, did she feel uncomfortable speaking about him because of the affair or because she was the one who ended his life? Or both?

“I wasn’t around at the time but I was told that you told him, luv. I disappeared in the Slipstream,” Lena tapped her knuckles against the harness of her accelerator; “I was gone before we decided what we were gunna do about it. A few people suspected which I didn’t know about until I was brought back. They told me you kinda lost it, ripped Gérard’s head off or something and was going to divorce him before they took you.” Lena cleared her plated and pushed it to the middle of the coffee table now that she was done with her food.

“How long were you gone?” Lena chewed her lip, obviously the sniper had been informed on her situation and abilities but it didn’t seem to go further than that.

“Just over seven months. They had a funeral for me which you apparently picked everything out for ‘cause I didn’t have any family. About three months in, just after you disappeared, I started partially reappearing around the place and they figured out I was still alive. Winston put everything into pulling me out of it despite protests, I’ll always be grateful even if we’ve had problems.”

“What was it like?” Lena swallowed hard at the question, thinking about where she would even start with answering it. She had only answered that question once for Angela in therapy and even then it was reluctant, it was easier to pretend it didn’t happen.

“Well… It was kinda like seeing all of time happening at once, not sure how much of it was actually real or anything though. Angie told me I should just forget most of it and not make any decisions over it but it’s hard not to sometimes. Couldn’t interact with anything either, felt like an actual ghost.” Lena watched as Widowmaker nodded as if absorbing the answer she had given and tried one of the dumplings in front of her. She hadn’t really thought about what she would talk about when they had gotten to this point, _if_ they had gotten to this point. She guessed it made sense that Widowmaker was trying to fill in the gaps of her memory now that she had Lena just sitting here and able to answer any questions she had. “Any other questions, luv? I’ll answer anything you ask. Or I’ll try to.”

“Do you have a thing for married women or was it just her… me?”

“Just you. I dated a little before I met you but since I was in the RAF I didn’t have much free time. None of them were married though.”

“Why do you always look exhausted?”

“I-Uh. I don’t sleep very much. Had a lot of trouble with it since the Slipstream.”

“Your gloves, you never take them off. Why?”

“I don’t like the way my hands look after what happened. Lots of people stare and my sense of touch sucks anyway so I just wear the gloves.”

“Do you love me?” The former pilot’s heart stopped for a brief moment at the question.

“’Course I do, luv. Always have.” Lena worried her lip between her teeth before continuing, “Do you love me?” She felt her skin crawl with anxiety at asking the question, she didn’t know if she was prepared for an answer she didn’t like.

“I don’t…. I don’t know what I feel. I am not used to having such strong emotions; I have nothing to compare it to.” Lena nodded, processing the answer. It was certainly better than a no, they could work with that.  

                                                                                                                   X

Lena dug through the bags that Sombra had packed for her. The hacker had filled the bags with some of her clothes from her wardrobe but also some clothes she didn’t recognise, Lena figured that they were for Widowmaker so she could wear something other than that ridiculous sniping suit for once. She called out to Widow, asking her to come into the bedroom in order to give her the new clothes.

“I think these are for you.” Lena said while pulling out a pile of folded clothes from the bag, passing it over to the sniper. “Might be nice to wear something other than _that_.” The pilot gestured with a finger at the sniping suit Widow was wearing.

“Do not act as if you do not like what you see, mon chou.” Widow purred while taking the clothes from Lena’s hands, a small flush appearing on the pilot’s cheeks as she stuck her tongue out at the assassin. Lena picked up her own clothes and walked towards the wardrobe built into the wall of her bedroom, placing the clothes in her draws. It was once she had opened the doors to the wardrobe, she found a box sitting on the floor of it and pushed to the back. She didn’t remember leaving this behind.

Lena pulled the box towards herself and began looking through the contents, she recognised it all immediately. It was a box she had kept hidden in her quarters back in Gibraltar, it was filled with all the different gifts and items that were reminders of her relationship with Amélie. She had kept it hidden mostly from herself to keep from getting too upset by looking at them. Lena dragged the box out and into the middle of the small bedroom before looking up at Widow who was standing with her clothes in her hand, a lost expression on her face.

“You can put your clothes in one of the draws there if you like, luv.” Lena gestured vaguely at the wardrobe before she began digging through the box; it had been years since she let herself take an actual look at any of its contents. She wondered how Sombra knew about its existence then decided she was probably better off not knowing.

Lena could see Widow putting her own clothes away from the corner of her eye as she focused on searching through for one particular gift. The watch Amélie had given her on her birthday four years ago was in a velvet box at the bottom of the pile. She had felt guilty when the older woman had given it to her but still wore it every day up until the Slipstream and once she had been brought back she couldn’t bring herself to wear it anymore.

“What is that?” Lena looked up to see a slender blue finger pointing at the box in her hands.

“Oh, it’s something you gave me for my birthday once.” She opened the box and pulled out the watch, dangling the expensive Rolex on one finger. “I think it’s the most expensive gift I’ve ever received, haven’t worn it for a long time either.” Lena opened the clasp and put the watch on her wrist before closing the clasp again then adjusting the time on it. “This box is a whole bunch of stuff that either you gave me or photos of stuff we did together. You can look through it if you like.” Widow sat on the floor beside the box and began having a look through.

Lena watched as the sniper examined the items one by one. She started first with the set of photos in an envelope. One was of the first night that Lena had seen Amélie perform, her bow tie a little wonky as she had never really got the hang of tying it that night. The next was one where Lena was doing bunny ears behind Amélie’s head and they appeared to be at some kind of birthday party though Widow didn’t know whose. Another seemed to be at some kind of public event, both Lena and Amélie dressed up in some expensive clothes. It was strange for Widow to see someone who looked so much like herself but so different at the same time in these photos.

A smirk grew on Widowmaker’s face as she pulled out the scarf that had been folded in the box. While the photos she had seen had brought forth a feeling of warmth, they hadn’t given her any new memories. The scarf, however, brought some _very_ vivid memories straight to mind. Images of a naked, gasping Tracer with this exact scarf tied around her wrists.

“Everything alright, luv? Did you remember something?” Widowmaker chuckled before placing the scarf back in the box.

“Something like that, chérie.” She said in a low tone that made a shudder run up Lena’s spine. There were a few moments of silence before Widowmaker grabbed a book and wiped dust off the cover, it was French and seemed familiar to her but she couldn’t quite grasp it. “Why do you have a French book? You don’t speak it.”

“Well, it wasn’t mine and I do actually, luv. You’ve just never asked. The book was yours, I got it for you when you couldn’t find a copy of it and had to travel to the other side of Switzerland for it. I don’t know how it ended up in my things after the Slipstream but I read it a few times while I was recovering. You can have it if you want.”  

“Non, you can keep it.” She placed the book back in the box as she spoke, that was more than enough memories for one day and Lena picked up on that.

“How ‘bout we go watch a film or two in the living room? There’s heaps of stuff you missed and I can show you them.” Lena said as she stood, pushing the box with her foot back into the wardrobe before offering the sniper a hand up. Widowmaker simply took the pilot’s hand in lieu of an actual response and followed her into the next room.

                                                                                                          X

Widowmaker begrudgingly sat through two horrible rom-coms that Lena had picked out for them to watch before she decided she’d had enough. It was hard to say no to the small Brit, she had an energy and stubbornness to her that made it easy to give in and an overwhelming pout if you did have the courage to say no the first time. She decided it would be time for a new strategy, moving Lena’s head from where it rested on her shoulder to her lap and running her hand through her hair for a moment. The pilot looked up at her for a moment before smiling and looking back to the movie.

Widow moved her hand from Lena’s hair, dragging her knuckles up and down the pilot’s neck and along her jawline. Lena shuddered slightly under her touch but tried to keep her focus on the screen, the sniper then dragged her knuckles over her shoulder and down Lena’s bicep.

“Whatcha doing, luv?”

“I would like to play a game. Lie on your back.” Lena shifted onto her back, now looking up at Widowmaker instead of facing the TV. The pilot's eyebrows drew together in confusion. 

“A game?” Lena asked as she felt fingers running along the hem of her shirt before dipping underneath them, running slowly over the skin of her stomach.

“Oui.” Widowmaker pushed her hand further up Lena’s shirt and slid her finger tips under her right bra cup. “I will ask questions, if you answer, I will reward you.” Lena’s brain blanked as she felt her nipple being pinched between slender fingers.

“I-Uh... I-Um…” Widowmaker chuckled at Lena’s response, squeezing her breast in her palm.

“Do you think about me when you touch yourself?” The pilot let out a small squeak before answering.

“Y-Yes.” Lena confessed in an embarrassed stammer. She could feel her face heating up under the direct attention of those golden eyes.

“When was the last time you touched yourself?” Widowmaker removed her hand from Lena’s bra, her fingers running down her stomach, just stopping before the waistband of her pants. Lena inhaled sharply at the heavy promise in her motions.

“A f-few days ago.” Lena clenched her eyes shut tightly, licking her lips.

“Look at me.” She forced her eyes back open, warm brown meeting heated gold. “Just after I visited you in Gibraltar?” Lena grasped for what she was talking about for a few moments before remembering her previous question.

“Yes.”

“What did you think about?” If she had thought her face couldn’t get any redder, she had been wrong. Widowmaker’s hand slipped under the waistband of her pants, fingers teasing at slick folds.

“I-Um…” She hesitated on sharing _that_ particular fantasy, even with Widowmaker.

“Keep talking or I will stop.”

“Uh, I… I thought about you and me…” Lena swallowed, trying to quell the dryness in her throat and mouth, “You snuck into base again and cornered me while I was in the gym by myself…” Lena almost closed her eyes again as she felt two of Widow’s fingers circling around her clit without warning but she forced them open, maintaining eye contact like she had been asked.

“What happened next?”

“You-You bent me over one of the benches in the gym… pulled my pants to my knees…” She took a shaky breath in at the smirk that had been growing on Widowmaker’s face, “You f-fingered me and told me to keep quiet in case we got caught… when I couldn’t keep quiet, you spanked me.” The cruelty and amusement hinted in Widowmaker’s smirk didn’t help how wet Lena was; she was already close to the edge.

“An exhibitionist streak, hm?” Lena whimpered under the sniper’s attentions, her breathing now loud and ragged. “Anything more to that fantasy?”

“N-No, I came so I didn’t come up with anything after that. G-God, I’m so close.”

“Bonne fille, Lena.” She whimpered again as the praise brought her over the edge much faster than expected, coming hard and gasping for breath. Lena arched into the sniper’s touch as she rode it out. Widowmaker removed her hand from the pilot’s pants and brought her slick fingers to her Lena’s lips, getting her to suck on them. “Interesting to know what you are interested in.” Widowmaker smirked at her and Lena blushed even more.

                                                                                                                   x

Widowmaker guided Lena to the bedroom instead of letting the pilot return the favour, giving the excuse that she was tired and ready for bed. Lena bought the excuse and started getting the bed ready to be slept in. Lena clapped her hands over her eyes when Widowmaker began changing into some pyjamas that Sombra had packed for her. The sniper scoffed at that.

“You don’t have to cover your eyes, chérie.” Lena splayed her fingers slightly to take a peek, her breath hitching in her throat at the sight of the assassin topless. Widowmaker chuckled at the flush spreading on Lena’s cheeks before pulling on the pyjama shirt she had been given.

Lena swallowed hard then grabbed a blanket out of the draws in her bedside table and dropped it on the ground before reaching for a pillow from the bed. She quickly changed into her tank top and kitten pyjama shorts before lying down on the ground, pulling the blanket up over her shoulders and resting her head on the pillow.

“Are you planning to sleep on the floor?” Widowmaker looked down at her, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“Thought you might want the bed, luv. I can move to couch if you want though.” Lena propped herself up on her elbows as she prepared to get up and move.

“Non, don’t be ridiculous, we can share.” The sniper grabbed Lena by her tank top and pulled her up onto the bed with her. Lena frowned when Widowmaker winced as her accelerator’s harness dug into the assassin’s side when she tried to get close. Widow opened her mouth as if she were going to say something before closing it again.

“If…. If I were to remove my harness, would you hold me?” Lena said, it coming out just barely above a whisper. Widow looked down at her, golden eyes examining her face before nodding.

“Of course, mon amour.” The pilot began undoing the buckles with shaking hands, her heart starting to race. The sniper snaked a hand into her hair and pet at her scalp lightly, trying to calm Lena. She popped all the buckles on her harness open and pulled it from her chest, turning slightly to place the harness on the bedside table. Widow pulled Lena tightly against her, pressing her head into her chest and running her hand through the pilot’s unruly hair.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Lena woke with blue hands wrapped around her throat, her source of oxygen cut off. Widowmaker was straddling her hips, pinning Lena to the mattress. She desperately clawed at the hands around her throat, trying to pry the fingers away from where they dug into her skin. The assassin’s eyes were trained on hers, any semblance of warmth or recognition of who Lena was, gone.

“Widow.” She gasped, the hands around her throat only tightening even further. Lena’s eyes began watering.

It wasn’t until spots began forming in her vision that Widowmaker’s eyes widened and the hands around her throat released their death grip. Lena desperately gasped for air now that she wasn’t restricted, coughing harshly. The sniper scrambled from where she had been sitting on Lena’s hips, forcing herself off the bed and creating as much distance between the two of them as possible. The pilot rolled over onto her front as she caught her breath.

She should have felt afraid. She had just woken up to her girlfriend(?) choking the life out of her and she should have been afraid but when she looked up and saw Widowmaker cowering in the corner of her bedroom, Lena couldn’t bring herself to feel something like that. Lena sat up on the edge of the bed and pulled her harness off where she had left it on the bedside table the night before and tightened it over her chest.

Lena crossed the room and knelt beside where Widowmaker was sitting, she did her best to be gentle and give the distance the assassin was tactically asking for with her body language. She swallowed, trying to clear the dryness in her throat before speaking.

“You alright, luv?” Lena’s voice was raspy as she talked. Her concern grew when she heard Widowmaker sniffed, tears forming in her eyes.

“I should be the one asking you that. I almost killed you because I could not control myself.” She watched as Widowmaker rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“I’ll be fine. Bit sore but fine, luv. Do you need anything?” Lena reached out and ran her knuckles up and down Widowmaker’s upper arm. Widowmaker said and did nothing for a few moments to acknowledge Lena’s question until she pulled the pilot into a tight embrace, cradling Lena’s head against her chest. She let out a small grunt of surprise but gave into the hug quickly.

Lena sat there with Widowmaker in silence for as long as the assassin wanted, waiting for her to make the decision on what she needed. She liked the way Widowmaker lightly pet at her hair and scalp.

“Why are you not more upset?” The sniper finally asked after twenty minutes of silence between them.

“What do you mean, luv?”

“You should be more upset that I hurt you. You should be more upset that I almost killed you.” The hand petting Lena’s hair stilled as the pilot looked up at her, her eyebrows drawing together and her lips twisting as she thought about how to answer.

“I was afraid when I first woke up and a little bit after you let go, thought you wouldn’t snap out of it for a moment. Saw the look on your face after though and I couldn’t be scared of you, luv.” Widowmaker only responded with a noise that sounded like assent before she went back to petting at the unruly brown locks.

                                                                                                                 X

Lena eventually managed to coax Widowmaker out of the corner and off the floor, guiding her to the couch in the living room. She had taken the chance to show the assassin a few more of her favourite films from the past four years, choosing to go with some cheesy horror films this time after how much Widowmaker had disliked the rom-coms. It turned out to be a good distraction for the sniper while she processed all these new emotions. She didn’t say much about what she was feeling other than she had never felt it before and that it felt bad. It was nice in a weird way to know the assassin could feel guilt.

After a few films, Lena managed to pry herself off the couch in order to head out to get some groceries. They couldn’t live on take-away forever and they needed some more supplies for this empty flat. She only did a quick shopping trip, buying enough food for a few more days while they decided on what was to happen next, while they figured out a more long term plan.

She placed the shopping bags down on the ground as she fished for her keys in her jacket pocket. Her heart stopped when she saw the frayed wood around the lock and handle on the door as if it had been kicked in then closed after. Lena pushed the door open, abandoning the shopping in the hallway as she entered the apartment to investigate. Her eyes scanned the kitchen and the living room beyond, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Lena pushed the door to the bedroom open, finding Widowmaker sitting on the edge of the bed and Fareeha standing in front of her in the middle of the room, gun in hand. The only thing that brought Lena relief was that Fareeha wasn’t pointing the gun at Widow; it was pointed at the floor with the safety still on.

“Fareeha… What’re you doing here?” Lena clenched her fists, the leather twisting underneath her fingers.

“Overwatch sent me to check this apartment because I was already nearby. See whether we were correct in our theory about it being where you were hiding, _if_ you were hiding.” Fareeha’s eyes examined Lena as she spoke, holstering her gun when satisfied that neither Lena nor Widowmaker were armed.

“What have you told them?”

“Nothing yet. I’m giving you a chance to explain what this _is_ first.”

“I’ve been telling everyone for years that we could help her. No one would listen so here I am doing it on my own.”

“So you’re here of your own free will and Talon doesn’t know your location?” Lena worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before answering. Widowmaker watched their interaction quietly, her golden eyes shifting back and forth between them.

“Yeah, as far as I know, luv. I would have waited it out if I could have, I got told that Widow’s life was in danger if I kept putting things off and tried to get Overwatch’s help.” Fareeha simply raised an eyebrow at that information, spurring Lena to continue talking, “From a reliable source. We’re no risk to Overwatch, and unless you’re planning to start helping us all of a sudden we just want to be left alone.” Lena watched the expression on Fareeha’s face slowly changing as she thought things through. She knew the Egyptian well enough to know that she wouldn’t want to deceive Overwatch as she had a strong sense of loyalty but she also knew that loyalty extended to her friends. Fareeha placed her hands on her hips and looked down at the floor as she let out a frustrated sigh.

“I’m going to tell Overwatch that I came here and found nothing. That if you had been here at any point, you were already gone and I couldn’t be sure. I’m choosing to trust you, Lena, despite that _she_ ,” Fareeha pointed a finger directly at Widowmaker, “murdered my mother. If what you’re saying is true, that she was not in control of her actions and can be helped then…” She pinched the bridge of her nose, clenching her eyes shut, “I’m going to choose against my better judgement to let you do it. You will need to leave here as soon as possible so you don’t make me more of a liar than I need to be. You have maybe two days at most. Don’t give me a reason to regret it.” Fareeha walked towards Lena before putting a hand on her shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze and left. 

Lena watched the soldier leave in a stunned silence. She hadn’t known what to expect when she found Fareeha standing in her bedroom but being told that she would lie for Lena _certainly_ wasn’t it. She was surprised that Fareeha would be willing to do this for her after what Widowmaker had done to her mother but Lena was going to take everything she could get. Lena was grateful that Fareeha had been able to look past the _many_ reasons not to help them and chose to anyway.

“You alright, luv?” Lena asked as she closed the distance between herself and Widow, running a gloved thumb over the sniper’s cheek.

“She didn’t do anything other than wait here until you returned, I am fine.” She smiled slightly at Widow before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Good. Sounds like we have maybe a day or two to come up with a plan. I should…” Lena jumped slightly when she realised that she had ditched all of the groceries in the hallway. “I should make dinner and need to go get our food.” She dashed quickly out of the bedroom and back to the bags of food resting on the floor.

                                                                                                           X

Lena decided to make some pasta for dinner after discovering that Widowmaker had basically lived on ration bars and liquid meals ever since she had been taken by Talon, not having a real meal until the Chinese take-away the night prior. The pair discussed where they would go next in order to keep Fareeha’s deception a secret and Lena had been worried about finding somewhere safe from both Overwatch and Talon scrutiny until the assassin admitted she might know of something. She told Lena she had vague memories of an ancestral home in Annecy that they might be able to use but she wasn’t sure. They agreed to leave the following day and see whether it would work, they could figure things out as it went along.

The former pilot felt the most relaxed she had ever been in months, possibly years when they had moved back to the bedroom and laid down. Widowmaker had laid down beside her and rested her head on Lena’s stomach, curling up beside her. It had surprised Lena but she was quick to embrace it, running her hands through the sniper’s hair now that she had let it out of its tight ponytail. Widowmaker had asked her to read the book Lena had given her years ago when they first met out loud. The assassin couldn’t remember the contents of the book from when she had read it and wanted to know why she had been searching for it for so long. It had been a long time since Lena had ever spoken French out loud and it took a while for her to find a good pace but Widow didn’t seem to mind.

After several chapters, the sniper finally said something, “Would you take your gloves off for me?” Lena paused in her reading and the motions of her hand petting Widow’s hair.

“I don’t… Why do you want me to do that, luv?” Widowmaker tilted her head up to look Lena in the eyes.

“You haven’t removed them once since we got here. Not even when you were asleep. I want… I want to feel your hands on my skin.” Lena chewed on her lip as she considered it. She didn’t like taking off her gloves in front of others with the scarring from her burns, she didn’t like the way people looked at them. She hesitated, not wanting to affect how Widow looked at her by taking them off but she decided to trust the sniper. Lena placed the book down on the bed beside her and tugged at the fingertips of her gloves, tossing them aside.

Widowmaker took Lena’s right hand in hers, sitting up slightly. She ran her fingers over Lena’s knuckles before turning her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm. Lena brought her other hand up to Widow’s face, cupping her cheek with it. It was strange to feel Widowmaker’s cool skin against the palm of her hand but it was certainly nice.

Lena kept her gloves off when they went to sleep that night.


End file.
